It’s déjà vu all over again. Every year, the state Comptroller issues a list of school districts on Long Island that are in violation of the law in maintaining escrow reserve accounts in excess of the 4% legal limit.
Newsday thereafter properly writes articles and editorials decrying the practice. Yet the pattern repeats itself every year. Why? Because the state lets them.
Simply put, there is no legal mechanism in place for the state to claw back the money.
Actually, the Attorney General can bring an action against these districts to hold their school boards in contempt and to force a return of the money, but don’t count on that happening from statewide officials who are usually allied with the teachers unions.
What’s needed is what we’ve been calling for over the last many years, and that is for the state to pass legislation introduced by Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Smithtown) that would give the comptroller the authority to claw back excess monies.
Each year, the committee receives the bill from Fitzpatrick and, each year, the chairman of the Committee refuses to place the bill on the agenda.
We see the same happening with the MTA every year. They always come back for more money. They always have massive deficits. They’re always on the precipice of collapse and they always come back for higher taxes and fares. And yet, no one in Albany is pushing for a financial control board to be placed over the MTA.
Next year, instead of Newsday once again decrying the MTA’s waste and abuse, and reporting on more school escrow violations, perhaps they can editorialize for placing the MTA under a control board, while also pushing for passage of the bill to force the return of excess escrows in our schools. Who is voting for it and who is against it? It’s time to start naming names.