Section 12720.210 - Powers and duties of authority with respect to financial plans(a)Formulation and approval of plan.--To enhance the security of bonds issued by the authority and to advance the financial recovery or fiscal health of each assisted city, the authority shall require such city to submit a five-year financial plan in accordance with section 209. With regard to the formulation of such plan, the authority shall:(1) Consult with an assisted city as it prepares the financial plan.(2) Prescribe the form of the financial plan, insofar as that form is consistent with an assisted city's home rule charter or other optional plan of government and with this act.(3) Prescribe the supporting information required in connection with such plan, such information to 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 plan and due or projected to be due during the relevant fiscal years; and(iii) a statement in reasonable detail of the significant assumptions and methods of estimation used in arriving at the projections in the plan.(4) Exercise any rights of approval or disapproval and issue such recommendations as are authorized by this act in accordance with the standards for formulation of the plan set forth in section 209(c).(b)Authority functions after plan is approved.--After a financial plan has been approved, the authority shall: (1) Receive and review: (i) the financial reports submitted by the mayor or chief executive officer of an assisted city under section 209(i);(ii) reports concerning the debt service requirements on all bonds, notes of such city and lease payments of such city securing bonds or other government agencies for the following quarter, which reports shall be in such form and contain such information as the authority shall determine, and which shall be issued no later than 60 days prior to the beginning of the quarter to which they pertain, and shall be updated immediately upon 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 such report to reflect any change in debt service requirements as a result of such issuance; and(iii) any additional information provided by the assisted city concerning changed conditions or unexpected events which may affect the city's adherence to the financial plan. The reports described in subparagraph (ii) shall be certified by the city controller.(2) Determine, on the basis of information and reports described in paragraph (1), whether an assisted city has adhered to the financial plan.(c)Variation from the plan.--If the authority determines, based upon reports submitted by an assisted city under subsection (b) or independent audits, examinations or studies of the assisted city's finances obtained under subsection (i)(4), that an assisted city's actual revenues and expenditures vary from those estimated in the financial plan, the authority shall require the city to provide such additional information as the authority deems necessary to explain the variation. The authority shall take no action with respect to an assisted city for departures from the financial plan in a fiscal quarter if: (1) the city provides a written explanation for the variation that the authority deems reasonable;(2) the city proposes remedial action which the authority believes will restore the city's overall compliance with the financial plan;(3) information provided by the city in the immediately succeeding quarterly financial report demonstrates that the city is taking such remedial action and otherwise complying with the plan; and(4) the city submits monthly supplemental reports in accordance with section 209(i) until it 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 such recommendations to the mayor or chief executive officer and the governing body of the city and to the officials named in section 203(b)(5).(e)When Commonwealth shall withhold funds.--(1) The authority shall certify to the Secretary of the Budget an assisted city's noncompliance with the financial plan during any period when the authority has determined by the vote of a qualified majority that the city has not adhered to the plan and has not taken acceptable remedial action during the next quarter following such departure from the plan.(2) The authority shall certify to the Secretary of the Budget that an assisted city is not in compliance with the plan if the city:(i) has no financial plan approved by the authority, or has failed to file a financial plan with the authority; or(ii) has failed to file mandatory revisions to the plan or reports as required by section 209(h), (i), (j) or (k); and(iii) has not been compelled to file a financial plan, a mandatory revision to the plan or a report through a mandamus action authorized under subsection (j).(3) 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 city that such certification has been made and that each grant, loan, entitlement or payment to the assisted city by the Commonwealth, or any of its agencies, including payment from the city account established pursuant to section 314, shall be suspended pending compliance with the financial plan. Funds withheld shall be held in escrow by the Commonwealth or, in the case of the city account, be retained in that city account until compliance with the plan is restored as set forth in paragraph (4). Funds held in escrow pursuant to this subsection shall not lapse pursuant to section 621 of the act of April 9, 1929 (P.L. 177, No. 175), known as The Administrative Code of 1929, or any other law.(4) The authority shall, by qualified majority vote, determine when the conditions which caused an assisted city to be certified as not in compliance with the financial plan have ceased to exist and shall promptly notify the Secretary of the Budget of such vote. The Secretary of the Budget shall thereupon release all funds held in escrow, together with all interest and income earned thereon during the period held in escrow, and the disbursements of amounts in the city account shall resume as provided in section 314(c).(f)Exemptions.--Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e), the following shall not be withheld from an assisted city: (1) funds for capital projects under contract in progress;(2) funds granted or allocated to an 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;(3) pension fund payments required by law;(4) funds administered by the assisted city's department of human services or department of health that provide benefits or service to recipients;(5) funds that the assisted city has pledged to repay bonds or notes issued under the act of October 18, 1972 (P.L. 955, No. 234), known as The First Class City Revenue Bond Act; and(6) funds appropriated by the Commonwealth for the court system or correctional programs of the assisted city.(g)Effect of Commonwealth's failure to disburse funds.--The provisions of subsection (e) also 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 city from moneys 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 are to be made by the assisted city and the amounts of such expenditures then permitted under the financial plan of the assisted city.(i)Documents and examinations to be reviewed or undertaken by the authority.--The authority shall: (1) receive from an assisted city, and review, the reports, documents, budgetary and financial planning data and other information prepared by or on behalf of such assisted city and which are to be made available to the authority under this act;(2) receive from a corporate entity or school district, and review, the reports, documents, budgetary and financial planning data and other information prepared by or on behalf of a corporate entity or school district and which are to be made available to the authority under this act as the authority deems necessary to accomplish the purposes of this act;(3) inspect and copy such books, records and information of an assisted city, corporate entity or school district as the authority deems necessary to accomplish the purposes of this act; and(4) conduct or cause to be conducted such independent audits, examinations or studies of a school district or assisted city's finances as the authority deems appropriate.(5) conduct or cause to be conducted such independent audits, examinations or studies of a corporate entity's finances as the authority by a qualified majority of the board deems appropriate.(j)Remedies of authority for failure of an assisted city to file financial plans and reports.--In the event that an assisted city shall fail to file with the authority any financial plan, revision to a financial plan, report or other information required to be filed with the authority pursuant to this act, the authority, in addition to all other rights which the authority may have at law or in equity, shall have the right by mandamus to compel the assisted city and the officers, employees and agents thereof to file with the authority the financial plan, revision to a financial plan, report or other information which the assisted city has failed to file. The authority shall give 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 such an action earlier than ten days after the giving of such notice. 1991, June 5, P.L. 9, No. 6, § 210, imd. effective. Amended 2022, July 7, P.L. 440, No. 36, § 4, effective in 60 days [Sept. 6, 2022].