In his program bill memorandum, Governor Pataki made it clear that he intended [*6]New York City schools to receive additional funding that exceeded the minimum cost of a sound basic education. Proposals for a Dedicated State Fund for Sound Basic Education and for a New York City local state aid match would, when coupled with projected increases in state school aid and federal aid, generate "approximately $4.7 billion in additional support over the next five years" (Governor's Program Bill Mem in Support of 2004 Extraordinary Session NY Senate Bill S 1-A, at 4). As noted, the proposed legislation was not enacted. The Legislature, however, passed a bill on August 10,{**8 NY3d at 25} 2004, providing $300 million in additional education aid to New York City. Once the deadline of July 30, 2004 we had set in CFE II had passed, Supreme Court set out to determine whether the measures we had declared necessary had been carried out. It appointed a blue-ribbon panel of referees "to hear and report with recommendations" on whether the steps taken by the State brought compliance with CFE II. The Referees conducted numerous hearings, in which they heard from many witnesses, including the Mayor of New York City, the Chancellor of the New York City School District, and representatives of the New York State Division of the Budget and Education Department. They received extensive written submissions, including four compliance plans: the Governor's State Education Reform Plan, drawing on the Zarb Commission; plaintiffs' Plan for Compliance, which included the New York Adequacy Study, a cost analysis conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Management Analysis and Planning, Inc. (MAP); the Regents Proposal on State Aid to School Districts for 2004-05; and a proposal from the City of New York. Although they accepted the "successful school districts" methodology of the Zarb Commission, the Referees rejected its cost-effectiveness filter, used a 1.5 weighting for economically disadvantaged students in place of the S & P coefficient of 1.35, and insisted on the use of an updated GCEI, prepared for plaintiff CFE's New York Adequacy Study. They concluded that the spending gap in New York City was $5.63 billion in 2004-2005 dollars, rejecting the State's contention that additional funding in the amount of $1.93 billion would ensure the opportunity for a sound basic{**8 NY3d at 26} education in New York City's public schools. The Referees adopted CFE's capital funding program, "Building Requires Immediate Capital for Kids" (BRICKS), recommending that the State be required to ensure that $9.179 billion in 2004-2005 dollars would be available as funding for capital improvements over the following five years. Additionally, the Referees recommended that costing-out studies be carried out every four years, supervised by the Board of Regents, "until it becomes clear that reforms to the State's education finance formulas have rendered such studies no longer necessary to assure all New York City students the opportunity for a sound basic education" (Report and Recommendations of the Judicial Referees, at 39). [*7]