Ruling in college suit favors Nassau

Nassau County can dramatically scale back its subsidies for North Hempstead students who attend Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, a court has ruled.

The decision could save counties across the state millions of dollars, officials said.

Nassau Supreme Court Justice Anthony Parga said North Hempstead must reimburse the county only for FIT students enrolled in two-year associate degree programs. The school also has bachelor's and master's degree programs and charges the home counties of all students from outside Manhattan $10,980 per year.

"This is a huge victory for the town and for the county," said town Supervisor Jon Kaiman. "It will save us millions going forward."

FIT said it was not bound by the ruling.

"The case does not change a county's obligation under law to pay to FIT a chargeback amount," said spokeswoman Loretta Lawrence Keane. She said the court "was mistaken in concluding that the statute limits chargebacks only to two-year programs."

SUNY spokesman David Belsky said, "We are aware of the ruling and are currently reviewing the judge's decision."

The dispute stems from a law requiring counties in New York to reimburse out-of-county community colleges that their residents attend. The counties are responsible to pay the difference between the college's resident and nonresident tuition rates.

Classified by the state as a community college, the FIT chargeback for out-of-county students is the highest of any community college in the state. Counties across the state pay up to $10 million in subsidies annually to FIT, said Stephen Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties.

Nassau has covered the FIT charges since 2001. But faced with a steep deficit for 2011, the county began passing those costs to the towns in April.

Nassau notified North Hempstead, Hempstead and Oyster Bay that it was diverting a combined $6.8 million from their share of county sales tax revenue to pay the subsidies.

North Hempstead, whose share of the FIT reimbursements was $1.17 million for 2010, filed suit in May. Hempstead and Oyster Bay did not join the suit.

Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli said he was pleased with the ruling but concerned that it did not address the bachelor's and master's degree reimbursements. Nassau could appeal the decision or bring a new suit against FIT to recover those costs, he said.In Suffolk, county Legis. Tom Cilmi (R-Bay Shore) is drafting legislation instructing the county not to pay any FIT charges until the school changes its tuition policies. "FIT is lumping everyone together in one giant pot and asking us to pay for it," Cilmi said.

Officials said it is unclear how much money the county owes North Hempstead. The town had 165 students enrolled in FIT last year but records do not indicate which programs those students were enrolled in.

Parga gave Nassau 60 days to determine how much to reimburse North Hempstead.