NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A11391
SPONSOR: Rules (Barclay) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general municipal law, in relation to permitting the
Oswego city school district to create an insurance reserve fund
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To authorize the Oswego City School District to establish an insurance
reserve fund to make expenditures related to health-related claims.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the general municipal law governing insurance reserve
funds to permit the Oswego City School District to establish such
reserve funds.
Section 2. Establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
In an effort to contain costs associated with increasing health insur-
ance premiums, which creates a significant strain on school budgets
annually, many school districts have opted to move to a self-insurance
model for health benefit programs as opposed to traditional premium
based programs. The Oswego City School District has determined that a
self-insurance model is a lower cost method of delivering health insur-
ance to its employees, thereby lowering the district's budgetary
expenses. Nonetheless, the challenge with such a model is the unpredict-
ability of claims. Such fluctuations in claims, coupled with the exist-
ing statutory restrictions related to fund balances, necessitate this
authorization.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
New Bill
STATE OF NEW YORK
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11391
IN ASSEMBLY
May 15, 2026
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Barclay) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to permitting the
Oswego city school district to create an insurance reserve fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 6-n of the gener-
2 al municipal law, as separately amended by chapters 486, 515 and 525 of
3 the laws of 2024, is amended to read as follows:
4 (a) The governing board of any municipal corporation may establish a
5 reserve fund to be known as the insurance reserve fund. Upon the
6 creation of the fund, the municipality may make expenditures from the
7 fund for any loss, claim, action or judgment for which the municipal
8 corporation is authorized or required to purchase or maintain insurance,
9 except those kinds of risks for which insurance is authorized pursuant
10 to paragraph one, two, three, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
11 twenty-two or twenty-three of subsection (a) of section one thousand one
12 hundred thirteen of the insurance law, or for payments in lieu of
13 contributions under article eighteen of the labor law; provided however,
14 that no municipality shall make an expenditure from such fund for any
15 loss, claim, action or judgment for which the municipal corporation has
16 established a reserve fund under any other provision of law; provided,
17 further that the Scarsdale union free school district, the Mamaroneck
18 union free school district, the Minisink Valley central school district,
19 the Vernon Verona Sherrill central school district, the Ithaca city
20 school district, the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda union free school
21 district, the Bedford central school district, the Grand Island central
22 school district, the Tonawanda city school district, the enlarged city
23 school district of Middletown, the Frontier central school district, the
24 Owego Apalachin central school district, the Maine-Endwell central
25 school district, the Binghamton city school district, the Candor central
26 school district, the Cleveland Hill union free school district, the
27 Depew union free school district, the Iroquois central school district,
28 the Liverpool central school district, the Auburn enlarged city school
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14170-01-5
A. 11391 2
1 district, the Carmel central school district, the Clarence central
2 school district, the Fulton city school district, [and] the Canastota
3 central school district, and the Oswego city school district may estab-
4 lish insurance reserve funds in compliance with this section and article
5 seventy-four of the education law and such school districts may make
6 expenditures in compliance with this section and article seventy-four of
7 the education law from such reserve fund for any loss, claim, action or
8 judgment for which the school districts are authorized or required to
9 purchase or maintain insurance for the kinds of risks for which insur-
10 ance is authorized pursuant to paragraph three of subsection (a) of
11 section one thousand one hundred thirteen of the insurance law.
12 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
