§ 2777. Statement of legislative findings and purpose. The legislature
hereby finds and declares as follows:

1. The economic well-being of the state and the general welfare of its
people require adequate, safe, secure and efficient aviation and
transportation facilities at a reasonable cost to the people.

2. The strengthening and improvement of aviation facilities and
related services is a matter of vital importance not only to the
residents of the capital district but to all the state's residents and
is, therefore, a matter of state concern.

3. In order to insure a healthy economy for such area and to promote
the general welfare of its residents, it is necessary to expand and
improve the existing aviation facilities and services in Albany county
in such a manner as to stimulate and promote increased local, state,
national and international air travel and commerce through the capital
district.

4. The health, welfare, safety and security of the state's residents
and of those passengers using air transportation requires coordinated
operation of aviation facilities and services in Albany county by a
public benefit airport authority.

5. The purposes of such authority shall be: (a) to promote safe,
secure, efficient and economical air transportation by preserving and
enhancing airport capacity; (b) to acquire, construct, reconstruct,
continue, develop, equip, expand, improve, maintain, finance and operate
aviation and other related facilities and services within Albany county;
(c) to stimulate and promote economic development, trade and tourism;
(d) to form an integral part of a safe and effective nationwide system
of airports to meet the present and future needs of civil aeronautics
and national defense and to assure inclusion of the authority's
facilities in state, national and international programs for air
transportation and for airport or airway capital improvement, all in
accordance with the provisions of this title; and (e) to insure that
aviation facilities authorized pursuant to this title shall provide for
the protection and enhancement of the natural resources and the quality
of the environment of the state and the capital district area.

6. Such purposes are in all respects public purposes for the benefit
of the people of the state of New York and for which public funds may be
expended and both the county and the authority in carrying out their
respective powers and duties under this title shall be deemed to be
acting in a governmental capacity. The acquisition, construction,
reconstruction, development, expansion, improvement, equipping,
operation and maintenance of any project financed or undertaken by the
authority or the county shall be deemed to be the performance of an
essential governmental function by the authority or the county acting in
its governmental capacity, whether such project shall be owned or
operated by the authority or by any person or public corporation.

7. It is hereby found and declared that it has been and remains the
policy of the state of New York to promote equal opportunity in
employment for all persons, without discrimination on account of race,
creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or marital status,
to promote equality of economic opportunity for minority group members
and women, and business enterprises owned by them, and to eradicate the
effects of private and governmental discrimination which has erected and
continues to maintain barriers that unreasonably impair access by
minority and women-owned business enterprises to state contract
opportunities.

Recent reviews and analyses of contracting in New York, including the
study by the division of minority and women's business development of
the department of economic development entitled "Opportunity Denied! A
Study of Racial and Sexual Discrimination Related to Government
Contracting in New York State," confirm through direct evidence of
racial and sexual discrimination in and by New York state sufficient to
justify race and sex conscious remedies. For the purpose of furthering
the state's compelling interest in eradicating the effects of racial and
sexual discrimination therefore, it is necessary and proper that article
fifteen-A of the executive law, concerning participation by minority
group members and women and business enterprises owned by them, shall
apply to the Albany county airport authority.