Relates to reporting requirements of SUNY and CUNY; relates to financial information and identifying vendor information of each contract; relates to a list of all foundation and state university employees by campus, department and location including salaries, job titles and descriptions.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5733
SPONSOR: Hyndman TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to reporting requirements
of the state university of New York and city university of New York
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this bill is to require the State and City universities
of New York to produce an annual report to be published online which
would disclose their financial records, including vendors, employees and
general accounting information for any research foundations which are
owned and operated by public colleges and community colleges.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends section 359 of the education law, adding subdivision 5
requiring the State University of New York to produce an annual report
regarding their financial information.
Section 2. Amends section 6233 of the education law requiring the City
University of New York to produce the same report. Adds a section defin-
ing exemptions that do not have to be included in disclosure reports.
Section 3. Sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Freedom of Information Law has played a crucial role in opening up
the operations of government agencies to public discussion and report-
ing. This has increased accountability and responsiveness of government
agencies.
However, the current definition of agencies covered by the FOIL law
leaves out certain types of agencies that are technically not agencies
of state or local government. These entities are often incorporated as
not for profit corporations or limited liability corporations, but oper-
ate in effect as subsidiaries of state agencies. For example, the SUNY
Research Foundation is incorporated as a not for profit but operates as
an extension of SUNY and is controlled by SUNY officials. The Research
Foundation describes itself as "the organization responsible for manag-
ing research grants and other sponsored programs for SUNY." Yet corpo-
rations of this type often refuse to disclose information to the press
and the public on the basis that they are not state agencies as defined
in the law.
This bill proposes that these corporations would have to disclose their
finances publicly each year online. These organizations spend millions
of dollars of funds that were received grants or donations that were
intended to either the public purpose of their affiliated state agency.
The shell of a separate corporate entity should not be used as an excuse
to deny public access to Information about how they use these funds.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24 S.6863/A.9570
2012-22 S.3540/A.9617
2019-20 S.6275/A.4367
2017-18 S.2214B/A.5929B
2015-16 S.19B/A.5379B
2013-14 S.2224B/A.7554B
2011-12 S.5797A/A.7789E
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect January 1, 2024.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5733
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 20, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HYNDMAN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to reporting requirements
of the state university of New York and city university of New York
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 359 of the education law is amended by adding a new
2 subdivision 5 to read as follows:
3 5. The trustees of the state university of New York shall require, on
4 or before November first of each year, an annual report of the research
5 foundation of the state university of New York, and an annual report of
6 state-operated institutions' and community colleges' campus foundations
7 and their subsidiaries, in a standardized format developed by the chan-
8 cellor. The annual reports required by this subdivision shall be posted
9 publicly on the website of the state university of New York in a machine
10 readable format by November first of each year. The reports shall
11 include, but not be limited to:
12 a. financial reports, including: audited financials in accordance with
13 all applicable regulations and following generally accepted accounting
14 principles as defined in subdivision ten of section two of the state
15 finance law, and any long-term liabilities;
16 b. a list of all contracts, including amount, purpose and identifying
17 vendor information of each contract; and
18 c. a list of all foundation and state university employees by campus,
19 department and job location, and the amount spent by campus, department
20 and job location which shall include annual employee salaries or other
21 compensation, employee job titles and descriptions and employee bene-
22 fits.
23 § 2. Section 6233 of the education law is amended by adding a new
24 subdivision 4 to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09856-01-5
A. 5733 2
1 4. The trustees of the city university of New York shall require, on
2 or before November first of each year, an annual report of the research
3 foundation of the city university of New York, and an annual report of
4 senior colleges' and community colleges' campus foundations and their
5 subsidiaries, in a standardized format developed by the chancellor. The
6 annual reports required by this subdivision shall be posted publicly on
7 the website of the city university of New York in a machine readable
8 format, by November first of each year. The reports shall include, but
9 not be limited to:
10 a. financial reports, including: audited financials in accordance with
11 all applicable regulations and following generally accepted accounting
12 principles as defined in subdivision ten of section two of the state
13 finance law, and any long-term liabilities;
14 b. a list of all contracts, including amount, purpose and identifying
15 vendor information of each contract; and
16 c. a list of all foundation and state university employees by campus,
17 department and job location, and the amount spent by campus, department
18 and job location which shall include annual employee salaries or other
19 compensation, employee job titles and descriptions and employee bene-
20 fits.
21 § 3. The reports required in sections one and two of this act may not
22 disclose the following information that: (a) is specifically exempted
23 from disclosure by state or federal statute; (b) if disclosed would
24 constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy under the
25 provisions of subdivision 2 of section 89 of the public officers law;
26 (c) if disclosed would impair present or imminent contract awards or
27 collective bargaining negotiations; (d) are trade secrets or are submit-
28 ted to an entity by a commercial enterprise or derived from information
29 obtained from a commercial enterprise and which if disclosed would cause
30 substantial injury to the competitive position of the subject enter-
31 prise; (e) are records of an entity relating to charitable donors or
32 prospective donors, including but not limited to the fund-raising strat-
33 egies of agencies identified in subdivision 3 of section 86 of the
34 public officers law, provided that records relating to fund-raising
35 strategies would, if disclosed, impair the ability of those entities to
36 attract or gain donations, and provided further that the name of any
37 donor and the amount of donation made by such donor shall be subject to
38 disclosure if such donor, or any entity in which such donor has a
39 substantial interest, seeks to transact business, or does transact busi-
40 ness, with the entity to which the donation is made within three years
41 of the date of such donation; and (f) are academic or scientific
42 research or research-related records, including any draft, preliminary
43 or unfunded grant or contract document, whether sponsored by the entity
44 itself or in conjunction with a third party, or records relating to the
45 entity's intellectual property, which, if disclosed, would adversely
46 affect license, patent, copyright or other rights of the entity. This
47 section shall not permit an entity to withhold records or portions ther-
48 eof pertaining to the name, title, expenditure, source or amount of
49 public funding relating to such research or intellectual property.
50 § 4. Nothing in this act shall be construed to supersede the
51 provisions of chapter 10 of the laws of 2006.
52 § 5. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
53 ing the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately,
54 the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation neces-
55 sary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are
56 authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
