§ 70-a. Fees to be paid by public officers for public advertisements.
The charge for the publication of concurrent resolutions, proposed
constitutional amendments, propositions or questions to be submitted to
the voters of the state, tax sales and official notices required to be
published by state boards, commissions or officers in newspapers of the
state, shall be paid from the treasury on the audit and warrant of the
comptroller, after certification by the proper officer that such a
publication has been regularly made as prescribed by law. The charge for
the publication, if authorized by law, of digests of laws of a local
nature in the newspaper designated to publish such digests shall be paid
by the several counties of the state in which such laws may be
published, upon like certification. The charge for the publication of
concurrent resolutions, proposed constitutional amendments, propositions
or questions to be submitted to the voters of the state or of any
political subdivision thereof or therein, tax sales by the state or any
county or municipality therein, and of all official notices and
advertisements authorized or required by law to be published at the
expense of the state or of a county, city, town, village, public
authority, public benefit corporation or other political or civil
subdivision of the state, shall be at the rate of twenty-nine cents per
line of a column width not less than ten pica ems, provided that in
computing such charge per line the line shall average at least five
words for each insertion in newspapers having less than two thousand
five hundred circulation; twenty-nine and one-half cents per line for
newspapers having two thousand five hundred or more circulation and less
than five thousand; thirty and one-half cents per line for newspapers
having five thousand or more circulation and less than seven thousand
and five hundred; thirty-one and one-half cents per line for newspapers
having seven thousand five hundred or more circulation and less than ten
thousand; thirty-two and one-half cents per line for newspapers having
ten thousand or more circulation and less than fifteen thousand; and
three and one-half cents per line in addition to the thirty-two and
one-half cents for the initial fifteen thousand circulation, for each
additional five thousand circulation up to thirty-five thousand
circulation and one and one-half cents per line for each additional five
thousand possessed by such newspapers. To all of the above rates nine
cents per line shall be added to the initial insertion charge of each
separate advertisement. To all of the above rates for the initial
insertion eight cents per line shall also be added for tabular matter or
intricate composition. Display advertising shall be charged agate
measurement, fourteen lines to each inch, ten to thirteen pica ems wide,
depending on the makeup of the newspaper publishing such copy. Every
newspaper printed, published or having its principal office outside of a
city having a population of over three hundred fifty thousand
inhabitants, as a condition precedent to designation as the official
newspaper of any county, city, town, village or other political or civil
subdivision of the state or for the making of claim for compensation
under the foregoing provisions of this section, must be established at
least one year and entered in the post office as second class matter.

This rate shall not apply to any newspaper printed, principally
circulated or having its principal office in the counties of New York or
Bronx within the first judicial district or in the county of Kings
within the second judicial district or in the county of Richmond within
the thirteenth judicial district or in the county of Nassau within the
tenth judicial district or in the county of Queens within the eleventh
judicial district or in the county of Westchester within the ninth
judicial district or in any city having a population of over one hundred
seventy-five thousand inhabitants within the seventh and eighth judicial
districts, where the rate for such publication may be equal to, but
shall not exceed, the regularly established classified advertising rate
of such newspapers. In reckoning line charges allowance shall be made
for date lines, paragraph endings, titles, signatures, and similar short
lines as full lines where the same are set to conform to the usual rules
of composition. Every newspaper printed, published or having its
principal office outside of a city having a population of over three
hundred fifty thousand inhabitants designated for the publication of
concurrent resolutions, proposed constitutional amendments, propositions
or questions to be submitted to the voters of the state and making claim
for compensation must be established at least one year, entered in the
post office as second class matter and be printed and published in the
town, village or city or its post office address and except newspapers
designated, printed, published and having their principal offices in a
city having a population of more than three hundred fifty thousand
inhabitants, shall attach to such claim an affidavit of the circulation
of such newspaper for the six months period ending March thirty-first or
September thirtieth immediately preceding, which shall be used as the
basis of circulation rating. Papers printed, published and having their
principal offices outside a city having a population of more than three
hundred fifty thousand inhabitants shall accept the minimum rate per
line until such time as they establish to the satisfaction of the state
comptroller sufficient circulation to entitle them to a higher rate. It
shall be the duty of each board of supervisors in the several counties
of the state, in making out the assessment rolls, to assess and levy on
the taxable property of the county whose representatives they are, such
sums as shall be sufficient to defray the expense of publishing the
digest of laws of a local nature, if such publication be authorized,
applicable only to the county affected, in the newspaper designated.
Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, any
publication which was designated and publishing notice as an official
newspaper prior to the year nineteen hundred forty and continued to be
so designated and publishing for at least thirty years after such year,
which has been designated for the publication of concurrent resolutions,
proposed constitutional amendments, propositions or questions to be
submitted to the voters of the state, may make claim for compensation
pursuant to the provisions of this section.