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§ 42210. Powers and duties of authority with respect to financial plans

Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes and Consolidated StatutesTitle 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal CorporationsEffective: October 24, 2018

Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes and Consolidated Statutes
Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations
Part V. Cities of the Third Class (Refs & Annos)
Chapter 85. Intergovernmental Cooperation Authorities Act for Cities of the Third Class
Chapter 2. Intergovernmental Cooperation Authorities for Cities of the Third Class
Effective: October 24, 2018
53 P.S. § 42210
§ 42210. Powers and duties of authority with respect to financial plans
Currentness
(a) Formulation and approval of plan.--To advance the financial recovery of an assisted city, the authority shall require the assisted city to submit a five-year financial plan in accordance with section 209.1 With regard to the formulation of the financial plan, the authority shall:
(1) Consult with the assisted city as it prepares the financial plan.
(2) Prescribe the form of the financial plan.
(3) Prescribe the supporting information required in connection with the financial plan, which shall include, at a minimum:
(i) Debt service payments due or projected to be due during the relevant fiscal years.
(ii) Payments for legally mandated services included in the financial plan and due or projected to be due during the relevant fiscal years.
(iii) A statement in reasonable detail of the significant assumptions and methods of estimation used in arriving at the projections in the financial plan.
(4) Exercise any right of approval or disapproval and issue any recommendation authorized by this act in accordance with the standards for formulation of the financial plan under section 209(c).
(b) Authority functions after plan is approved.--After a financial plan of an assisted city has been approved, the authority shall:
(1) Receive and review:
(i) The financial reports submitted by the chief fiscal officer of the assisted city under section 209(j).
(ii) Reports concerning the debt service requirements on all bonds, notes of the assisted city and lease payments of the assisted city securing bonds or other government agencies for the following quarter. The reports shall be in a form and contain information as the authority shall determine and shall be issued no later than 60 days prior to the beginning of the quarter to which they pertain. The reports shall be updated immediately at each issuance of bonds or notes by the assisted city or execution of a lease securing bonds of another government agency after the date of the report to reflect any change in debt service requirements as a result of the issuance.
(iii) Any additional information provided by the assisted city concerning changed conditions or unexpected events that may affect the assisted city's adherence to the financial plan. The reports described in subparagraph (ii) shall be certified by the controller of the assisted city.
(2) Determine, on the basis of information and reports described in paragraph (1), whether the assisted city has adhered to the financial plan.
(c) Variation from the plan.--
(1) If the authority determines, based upon reports submitted by the assisted city under subsection (b) or independent audits, examinations or studies of an assisted city's finances obtained under subsection (i)(3), that the assisted city's actual revenues and expenditures vary from those estimated in the financial plan, the assisted city shall provide additional information as the authority deems necessary to explain the variation.
(2) The authority shall take no action with respect to the assisted city for variations from the financial plan in a fiscal quarter if:
(i) The assisted city provides a written explanation for the variation that the authority deems reasonable.
(ii) The assisted city proposes remedial action that the authority believes will restore the assisted city's overall compliance with the financial plan.
(iii) Information provided by the assisted city in the immediately succeeding quarterly financial report demonstrates that the assisted city is taking remedial action and otherwise is complying with the financial plan.
(iv) The assisted city submits monthly supplemental reports in accordance with section 209(j) until the assisted city regains compliance with the financial plan.
(d) Authority may make recommendations.--The authority may at any time issue recommendations as to how an assisted city may achieve compliance with the financial plan and shall provide copies of the recommendations to the chief fiscal officer and the governing body of the city and to the officials specified in section 203(b)(4).2
(e) When Commonwealth shall withhold funds.--
(1) An authority shall certify to the Secretary of the Budget the assisted city's noncompliance with the financial plan during any period when the authority has determined that the assisted city is not in compliance with the plan and has not taken acceptable remedial action during the next quarter following noncompliance with the plan.
(2) The authority shall certify to the Secretary of the Budget that the assisted city is not in compliance with the financial plan if the assisted city:
(i) has no financial plan approved by the authority, has failed to provide requested documents or has failed to file a plan with the authority; or
(ii) has failed to file mandatory revisions to the financial plan or reports as required by section 209(i), (j), (k) or (l).
(3)(i) If the authority certifies that an assisted city is not in compliance with the financial plan under paragraph (1) or (2), the Secretary of the Budget shall notify the assisted city that the certification has been made and that each grant, loan, entitlement or payment to the assisted city by the Commonwealth shall be withheld pending compliance with the plan.
(ii) Funds withheld shall be held in escrow by the Commonwealth until compliance with the financial plan is restored as specified in paragraph (4).
(iii) Funds held in escrow under this paragraph shall not lapse under section 621 of the act of April 9, 1929 (P.L. 177, No. 175),3 known as The Administrative Code of 1929, or any other law.
(4) The authority shall determine when the conditions which caused the assisted city to be certified as noncompliant with the financial plan have ceased to exist and shall promptly notify the Secretary of the Budget of the vote.
(5) After receipt of the notice, the Secretary of the Budget shall release all funds held in escrow, together with all interest and income earned on the funds during the period held in escrow, and the disbursements of amounts in the city account shall resume.
(f) Exemptions.--Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e), the following shall not be withheld from an assisted city:
(1) Funds granted or allocated to the assisted city directly from an agency of the Commonwealth or from the Federal Government for distribution by the Commonwealth after the declaration of a disaster resulting from a catastrophe.
(2) Funds for capital projects under contract in progress.
(3) Pension fund payments required by law.
(4) Funds the assisted city has pledged to repay bonds or notes.
(g) Effect of Commonwealth's failure to disburse funds.--The provisions of subsection (e) shall not apply and an assisted city shall not be found to have departed from the financial plan due to the Commonwealth's failure to pay any money, including payment of Federal funds distributed by or through the Commonwealth, due to the assisted city from money appropriated by the General Assembly.
(h) Assisted city to determine expenditure of available funds.--Nothing in this act shall be construed to limit the power of an assisted city to determine from time to time, within available funds of the assisted city, the purposes for which expenditures will be made by the assisted city and the amounts of the expenditures then permitted under the financial plan of the assisted city.
(i) Documents and examinations to be reviewed or undertaken by authority.--An authority shall:
(1) Receive from the assisted city and review the reports, documents, budgetary and financial planning data and other information prepared by or on behalf of the assisted city and that are made available to the authority under this act.
(2) Inspect and copy the books, records and information of the assisted city as the authority deems necessary to accomplish the purposes of this act.
(3) Conduct or cause to be conducted independent audits, examinations or studies of the assisted city's finances as the authority deems appropriate.
(j) Remedies of authority for failure of assisted city to file financial plans and reports.--
(1) In the event that an assisted city fails to file with the authority a financial plan, revision to a plan, report or other information required to be filed with the authority under this act, the authority, in addition to all other rights that the authority may have at law or in equity, may by mandamus compel the assisted city and the officers, employees and agents of the assisted city to file with the authority the financial plan, revision to a plan, report or other information that the assisted city has failed to file.
(2) The authority shall provide the assisted city written notice of the failure of the assisted city to file and of the authority's intention to initiate an action under this subsection and shall not initiate the action earlier than 10 days after the giving of the notice.

Credits

2018, Oct. 24, P.L. 751, No. 124, § 210, imd. effective.

Footnotes

1
53 P.S. § 42209.
2
53 P.S. § 42203.
3
71 P.S. § 240.1.
53 P.S. § 42210, PA ST 53 P.S. § 42210
Current through Act 13 of the 2024 Regular Session. Some statute sections may be more current, see credits for details.
End of Document