§ 2799-bbb. 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 for the central part of the state is a matter of vital
importance not only to the residents of central New York but to all the
state's residents and is therefore a matter of state concern.

3. In order to ensure 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 the central New
York region in such a manner as to stimulate and promote increased
local, state, national and international air travel and commerce
throughout central New York.

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 the central New York
region by a public benefit airport authority.

5. The purposes of such authority shall be:

(a) to stimulate and promote economic development, trade and tourism;

(b) to acquire, construct, reconstruct, continue, develop, equip,
expand, improve, maintain, finance and operate aviation and other
related facilities and services within central New York;

(c) to promote safe, secure, efficient and economical air
transportation by preserving and enhancing airport capacity;

(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 ensure 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
central New York 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 city of Syracuse 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 city shall be deemed to be the performance of an
essential governmental function by the authority or the city 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, sexual preference, 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. 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 Syracuse regional airport authority.