2016-17 GENERAL AID AND EXCESS COST AID FINAL ADJUSTMENTS
UPCOMING OVERPAYMENT DEDUCTIONS
The review of State Aid claims for the most recent closed aid year is complete. Your district should have received notice of the exact amount of the final adjustment for that aid year. Notifications of General Aid adjustments and Excess Cost Aid adjustments were sent on two separate forms: SA32 and SA32EC; however, overpayments in both areas will be combined and deducted from upcoming March General Aid or Excess Cost Aid, and from subsequent aid payments when overpayment amounts exceed the March payment amounts. Note that the district received the final adjustment mailing even if no overpayment for the aid year is forthcoming.
The district must retain a copy of all final adjustment documents for the period of time required by applicable sections of the NYS Archives Records Retention and Disposition Schedule ED-1
Final adjustments represent overpayments based on changes to districts’ General Aid and Excess Cost aid after the final payment of aid in September. Typical causes of final adjustments are claim changes based on State Aid Office claim review and Building Aid changes generated by increased or decreased final capital project costs. In addition, if claim changes generating an overpayment were made after the June payment of an aid year, and the district was not due any additional aid in the final September payment of that aid year, the overpayment could not be deducted at the time of the final September payment. In these cases, the overpayment is now being deducted via the final adjustment process.
For the most part, State Aid will not change for an aid year after the final adjustment process is complete. Exceptions include, but may not be limited to subsequent aid changes resulting from:
- SED or Comptroller (OSC) claim review activity for a subsequent aid year that reveals significant inaccuracy in the claim for a previous but finalized aid year;
- OSC and SED discretion to review if warranted, any component of any finalized claim year;
- Prior year revision processing of STAC claims.
- Final cost reports for capital construction projects resulting in increased or decreased aidable project cost;
- Increases due to district submission of a claim change after the close of the aid year, but within the statute of limitations for such submissions. Prior year revisions received within this statute of limitations are processed after the final adjustment and added to the payment 'queue'.
To identify differences that may be the source of the final adjustment amount (Items E and N on the SA32 and SA32EC notifications respectively), please compare State Aid output reports based on the August Final Adjustment Snapshot to the output reports based on the May 15 database snapshot and the December 1 payment snapshot. These reports can be accessed via 2016-17 SAMS by selecting "Output Reports" from the "Reports" drop down menu. Once on the Output Report page, select the appropriate "Snapshot" to view a point-in-time output report. Before working with the selected output report, check the "Data Timestamp" in the top left corner to verify the snapshot date.
For the SA32 report it is recommended to start by comparing snapshots of items 1 through 42 of the GEN Output report in order to identify which aid component/s generated the adjustment. The specific aid area output report can then be examined for specifics of the change/s. For example, if a change in Transportation Aid is identified between two snapshots of the GEN report, select/compare the same two snapshots of the TRA output report to further pursue the source of the overpayment. For the SA32EC report it is recommended to start by comparing snapshots of Part X of the GEN Output report in order to identify whether the adjustment pertained to Public Excess Cost and/or Private Excess Cost Aid. Snapshots of those specific aid area output reports can then be reviewed for details on the aid change/s. Please feel free to contact the Data Unit in the State Aid Office for assistance working with SAMS snapshots.