Opinion
September 21, 1987
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Delaney, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law, by (1) deleting the first decretal paragraph thereof, (2) deleting the fourth decretal paragraph thereof and substituting therefor a provision declaring that the $3,500,000 purportedly appropriated on the "contingency budget line within the City of Yonkers budget" pursuant to City of Yonkers Special Ordinance No. 95-1987 for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1987, and terminating June 30, 1988, is deemed appropriated to the board and (3) adding a provision directing the city to transfer the $3,500,000 to the account of the board; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed, without costs or disbursements. The automatic statutory stay of the judgment is hereby vacated (see, CPLR 5519).
It is well settled that "while the municipality must make appropriations of money to run the schools, the expenditure of that money when once appropriated vest[s] solely in the Educational Board" (Matter of Divisich v. Marshall, 281 N.Y. 170, 173; see, Education Law § 2576, 2580 Educ.). Moreover, a municipality "cannot supersede the Education Law by tacking on to its appropriations for school purposes, limitations upon the power of the board of education given to it by the Education Law" (Matter of Brennan v. Board of Educ., 245 N.Y. 8, 14; see, 1950 Opns St Comp No. 6, at 81).
We agree with the court's finding that the city, in enacting Special Ordinance No. 95-1987, and adopting Resolution No. 141-1987 on June 30, 1987, concerning the operating budget for the 1987/1988 fiscal year, appropriated the subject $3,500,000 to the board. Having made this appropriation, under the Education Law, the city must credit these funds to the board, to be disbursed upon the board's audit (see, Education Law § 2576, 2580 Educ.; Board of Educ. v. King, 280 App. Div. 458, lv denied 280 App. Div. 1033, lv dismissed 304 N.Y. 973). Thompson, J.P., Weinstein, Rubin and Harwood, JJ., concur.