§ 160-jj. Assessment of fund members; customer surcharges; audit
powers of the fund, the board and the fund's insurer. 1. To pay (a) the
costs of the insurance purchased pursuant to subdivision three of
section one hundred sixty-ii of this article or (b) the benefits due
under the workers' compensation law in the event the fund self-insures
pursuant to subdivision two of section one hundred sixty-ii of this
article, and to pay (c) its expenses in carrying out its powers and
duties under this article and (d) its liabilities, if any, pursuant to
section fourteen-a of the workers' compensation law, the fund shall
ascertain by reasonable estimate the total funding necessary to carry on
its operations.

2. Based upon its estimation of operating costs, the fund shall
establish a proposed uniform percentage surcharge to be added to (a) the
invoices or billings for covered services sent to the customers of the
fund's members by a member or its agent and (b) the credit payments for
covered services received by a member or its agent. The proposed
surcharge shall become effective thirty days after being filed with the
department. Notwithstanding the foregoing, beginning on the first day of
the first calendar month that shall commence at least seventy-five days
after the effective date of this article, and until the fund shall have
filed with the department a different surcharge amount, a three percent
surcharge shall be added to every invoice or billing for covered
services sent by a member or its agent to, and every credit payment for
covered services received by a member or its agent from, the customers
of the fund's members. Each member of the fund shall be liable for
payment to the fund of an amount equal to the product of (i) the
percentages surcharge due pursuant to this article, divided by one
hundred and (ii) all payments received by the member or its agent for
covered services from the member's customers, as provided in this
subdivision, regardless of whether the surcharge was billed or charged.

3. No local licensing authority or the department or the New York
state department of motor vehicles shall issue, continue or renew any
license or registration certificate, or permit for the operation of any
central dispatch facility unless such central dispatch facility, as a
condition of maintaining its license and/or registration certificate,
adds the surcharge required by this section to every invoice and billing
for covered services sent to, and every credit payment for covered
services received from, its customers and pays to the fund no later than
the fifteenth day of each month the total surcharges due pursuant to
this article.

4. Each central dispatch facility shall submit to the fund with its
monthly payment a detailed accounting of the charge and surcharge
amounts charged to and received from customers for covered services
during the previous month. The first such payment and accounting shall
be due on the fifteenth day of the month following the imposition of the
surcharge pursuant to subdivision two of this section.

5. Should the fund determine that the surcharge amounts that have been
paid to it are inadequate to meet its obligations under this article, it
shall determine the surcharge rate required to eliminate such deficiency
and shall file such revised surcharge rate with the department in
accordance with subdivision two of this section. Commencing thirty days
after such filing, the members of the fund shall charge the revised
surcharge rate and shall pay to the fund the total amount of surcharges
in accordance with this article.

6. The fund shall have the power directly or through its agent to
conduct financial audits of its members to verify their compliance with
the requirements of this article. The fund or its agent shall be
afforded convenient access at all reasonable hours to all books, records
and other documents of its members that may be relevant to such audits.

7. For the purposes of conducting payroll audits, an insurer providing
coverage to the fund pursuant to this article may treat the members of
the fund as policyholders. Members of the fund shall be required to do
all things required of employers pursuant to section one hundred
thirty-one of the workers' compensation law, and shall be required to
provide the board access to any and all records and information as
otherwise required by the workers' compensation law and the regulations
promulgated thereunder, and shall be liable as provided in the workers'
compensation law for any failure so to do.