§ 5. Such port commission also shall (1) Have power to confer with the
governing bodies of each of the municipalities within the port district
and dock, port, harbor, channel and improvement commission and any other
body or official having to do with port and harbor facilities within and
without the district and hold public hearings as to such facilities;

(2) Have power to confer with the railroad, steamship, warehouse and
other officials in the district with reference to the development of
transportation facilities in such district and the co-ordination of the
same;

(3) Confer with the proper state officials as to means and measures
for stimulating the use of the barge canal;

(4) Formulate and adopt a financial, building and operation program,
which shall be submitted to the mayor of each city, in the district, who
shall be entitled to be heard thereon before formal adoption, notice of
such hearing to be given in writing at least twenty days before the day
of such hearing;

(5) Have power to adopt a comprehensive plan, and to change or revise
the same, for the development of port facilities in such district, which
plan may provide separately for the work of initial development, and
shall include an estimate of the total cost of all the work and/or of
the work included in such initial development, and to apportion the cost
thereof, as provided in section eight, and not oftener than once in
three years to revise such apportionment to accord with any changes
theretofore made in the comprehensive plan, as required by said section
eight; and as part of such comprehensive plan, or pursuant thereto, to
determine upon the location, type, size and construction of requisite
port facilities, subject, however, to the approval of the secretary of
war and chief of engineers, United States Army, where federal statute or
regulation requires it;

(6) Have power to acquire, lease, erect, construct, make, equip and
maintain port facilities within or outside the district, either on land
owned by the district or upon land set aside for its uses and control,
as provided in section thirteen, and for any such purpose to acquire and
improve real property, including easements therein, lands under water
and riparian rights, by agreement or by condemnation, and to sell, rent,
exchange or dispose of any property, real or personal, as may seem
advisable;

(7) Have power to contract with any municipality in the district for
the construction by the municipality of one or more docks, wharves,
terminals or warehouses, to belong to the municipality and be maintained
by it, whereby a part of the cost of construction shall be borne by the
district, in cases where the commission, after a public hearing,
determines that such work is of common benefit to the municipalities,
inhabitants and property in the district;

(8) Have power to execute contracts within the provisions and
limitations of this act;

(9) Have power to fix rates, charges and wharfage for the use of all
port facilities, or to rent the same or grant the use thereof for
limited periods, and collect rates, rents, charges and wharfage for such
facilities owned or controlled by the district;

(10) Operate and maintain all port facilities owned or controlled by
it, including a general terminal railroad connecting with any railroad
within said district, use the revenues therefrom for the upkeep thereof
and the expenses of the commission and the residue, if any, on hand at
the end of any fiscal year, for further construction and port
development, or in reduction of taxation;

(11) Have power to regulate and supervise the construction and
operation of all port facilities, by whomsoever constructed, installed
or owned;

(12) Expend moneys, if any, appropriated by the state for the purposes
of this act on account of benefits accruing thereunder to the state or
its property;

(13) Have power to create and maintain a traffic bureau;

(14) Have power to employ such clerical, engineering, legal or other
professional assistants as it may deem necessary for the purposes of
this act, fix their compensation and at pleasure discharge any of them;

(15) Have power to do all things necessary to make the deeper Hudson
project useful and productive.

The terms "facilities," "port facilities," "terminals," and "terminal
work" as used in this act, shall include, among other things, wharves,
docks, piers, terminals, railroad tracks on terminals, cold storage and
refrigerating plants, warehouses, elevators, and such facilities,
operations or things as may be incidental or appurtenant thereto, and
such property real or personal as may be acquired or used in connection
therewith, personal service, freight handling machinery and such
equipment as is used in the handling of freight and the establishment
and operation of a port, and the appurtenances thereto, and work of
deepening parts of the Hudson river adjacent to the terminal, exclusive
of the channel, within the port district.