GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland School District is owed nearly a quarter of a million dollars in state aid — and it’s not alone.

Across New York, school districts are owed more than $138 million for expenses that date back to 2000, according to figures compiled by the Capital Region-Questar III BOCES Superintendents’ Legislative Committee.

Locally, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District is owed $2,854 from 2000 and $54,437 from 2001.

Guilderland is owed $43,475 from 2000; and $178,544 from 2002; and $11,081 from 2003.

The lag in payment comes when school districts initially underestimate the amount of aid to which they are entitled.
"School districts make an estimate," said Scott Reif, with the state budget division of the governor’s office. "If it’s off, the claim is put on a State Education Department list" to be paid later.

While the education department submits plans for payment of prior-year adjustments to the budget division each year, the budget division has not approved a payment plan since the 2004-05 school year, according to the Superintendents’ Legislative Committee.

Asked about the lag, Reif told The Enterprise on Tuesday, "They assure me the prior-year claims will get paid — it’s just a question of when."
He went on, "Several of the 2000 claims have been approved. The State Education Department approves them and puts them in queue for payment."

The practice began six or seven years ago, according to Terrance Brewer, superintendent of the East Greenbush School District, who co-chairs the legislative committee.
The committee is making a point of it now, he said, because so much debt has accumulated. "It’s quite substantial for some school districts," he said; Schenectady, Cohoes, Albany, and Averill Park are each owed over a million dollars. Brewer’s own district, East Greenbush, is owed over $400,000.
"Funds should reach school districts in a timely manner," said Brewer. "If we create awareness...it may make legislators investigate and move it along. Districts rely on these funds to maintain programs and offset property taxes."
"School districts have pretty much stopped planning on it," said Neil Sanders, Guilderland’s assistant superintendent for business. "We can’t take the risk of budgeting based on that state aid. Some years, nothing is distributed"I don’t budget in anticipation of receiving it."

Sanders makes his initial budget projections based on the governor’s budget proposal and the legislature’s proposal, he said.
He sends into the state estimates "based on enrollment and other factors," he said. "It’s critical to get estimates as accurate as possible"But expenditure codes change, enrollments change," he said. This causes the school district to "under-project or over-project," he said.
When the district has underestimated on its aid, Sanders said, "The state says, ‘We’ve balanced the books"We don’t have any more money. We’ll put you on the list.’
"Conversely, if you overestimate, the state says, ‘We’ve paid you too much’ and they deduct it right away."
Sanders went on, "Over the years, they’ve refunded aid payment at different levels. You never know where you are on the list or if your aid will come through."
If the amount is significant, Sanders said, "Our auditors require us to have it on the books as deferred revenue."
Asked what the district would do with the $233,100 in aid if it were to receive it now, Sanders said, "It could go into the fund balance; it could be used to lower the taxes in a future year."
The payments are "few and far between," said Sanders. He’s been at Guilderland since 2003 and recalls there may have been one payment in that time.
Asked if he and his counterparts were frustrated by the system, Sanders said, "It used to be more of a topic of conversation. It’s been around so long now, it really isn’t. At first, it was more dramatic. Now, you wait and wait and the list grows and grows. We’ve gotten accustomed to the system"
"Certainly," he concluded, "we would like some mechanism to get that money sooner."