*§ 18-a. Statewide mass transportation operating assistance program.
1. Within the amounts made available therefor by appropriation, a
statewide mass transportation operating assistance program is hereby
established for the purpose of making payments toward the operating
expenses of public transportation systems. For the purposes of this
section, the term public transportation system shall mean any public
benefit corporation constituting a transportation authority which
provides or contracts for the provision of (under joint support
arrangements) mass transportation services, or a subsidiary thereof, or
any county or city which provides or contracts for the provision of
(pursuant to section one hundred nineteen-r of the general municipal
law) mass transportation services.

2. a. On and after May first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, the
commissioner shall pay to each public transportation system that makes
an application therefor, in quarterly installments, a mass
transportation operating assistance service payment to be determined and
computed as follows: the chief executive officer of each such system
shall certify to the commissioner not more than thirty days nor less
than fifteen days prior to the date of commencement of any quarter for
which an installment is payable, the total number of passengers such
system estimates that it will carry and the total number of vehicle or
car miles such system estimates that its equipment will travel in
revenue service during the quarter for which such installment is to be
paid. Upon receipt of any such certification, the commissioner shall
provide to the public transportation system a service payment, which
payment shall be computed by adding the sum of (i) the certified number
of passengers multiplied by one and four-tenths cents per passenger,
(ii) the certified number of vehicle or car miles multiplied by nine
cents per vehicle or car mile, and (iii) the amount obtained by
multiplying the total number of persons within the urban area served by
the public transportation system, as determined by the most current
federal decennial census, by ten cents per capita; provided, however,
that any service payment made by the commissioner to any county or city
on account of such county's or city's contracts for mass transportation
services (pursuant to section one hundred nineteen-r of the general
municipal law), shall not include an amount computed under item (iii)
above. Such quarterly installments shall be payable not later than the
tenth day of each successive quarter, with the quarters commencing on
the first day of May, August, November and February, respectively;
provided, however, that for the first quarter of May first through July
thirty-first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, such quarterly installment
may be made on or before June fifteenth, nineteen hundred seventy-four
and the chief executive officer of any public transportation system
making application hereunder shall make the required certifications not
more than thirty nor less than fifteen days prior to such date.

b. Each public transportation system receiving a quarterly service
payment pursuant to this subdivision shall certify to the commissioner,
within five days of the end of each quarter for which a service payment
was received, the actual total number of passengers carried by the
system during such quarter and the actual total vehicle or car miles the
system's equipment traveled in revenue service during such quarter, and
based upon such actual totals, the commissioner shall make such
adjustments as may be appropriate in the amount of the service payment
for such system for the succeeding quarter.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision two of this section,
the commissioner may establish with respect to any public transportation
system a maximum service payment, limiting the amount of state
assistance for which such system may qualify, where it appears that the
total amount of money appropriated or allocated to a group of
unspecified public transportation systems is less than the total amount
of money for which the entire group is eligible. Such maximum service
payments may be established on a quarterly or annual basis, in the
discretion of the commissioner; provided, however, that the sum of all
of the maximum service payments established during the period covered by
the appropriation, shall equal the amount of the appropriation or
allocation.

4. a. For any quarter commencing on or after May first, nineteen
hundred seventy-four, any county or city served by a public
transportation system that receives a service payment pursuant to
subdivision two of this section shall, not later than the fifteenth day
following the commencement of the quarter for which the payment is made
or the date on which the payment is made, whichever is later, pay to the
public transportation system a sum equal to such service payment, except
that in the case of a service payment made to a public transportation
system on account of mass transportation services provided to more than
one county (considering the city of New York to be one county), each
county receiving such services from such system shall pay to the system
a sum equal to its share of the service payment, which sum shall be
determined in accordance with the percentage or dollar amounts
established for such county by the legislature.

b. The payment required of any county or city by paragraph a of this
subdivision shall be in addition to all other forms of assistance now
provided or scheduled to be provided to any public transportation system
by any county or city, whether directly or indirectly; provided,
however, that where any county or city pays all of the operating deficit
of a public transportation system within such county or city, the amount
of assistance provided by such county or city to such public
transportation system may be reduced to the extent of the service
payment, but in no event to an amount less than the service payment.

c. In the event that a county or city shall fail to make to a public
transportation system any of the payments required to be made by it
under this subdivision, the chief executive officer of the public
transportation system or such other person as the commissioner shall
designate shall certify to the state comptroller such amount due and
owing such public transportation system and the state comptroller shall
withhold an equivalent amount from state aid allocated to such county or
city from highway aid, the motor fuel tax and the motor vehicle
registration fee distributed pursuant to section one hundred twelve of
the highway law, or per capita local assistance pursuant to section
fifty-four of the state finance law subject to the following
limitations: prior to withholding amounts allocated to carry such county
or city, the comptroller shall pay in full any amount due the state of
New York municipal bond bank agency, on account of any such county's or
city's obligation to such agency; the city university construction fund,
pursuant to the provisions of the city university construction fund act;
the New York city housing development corporation, pursuant to the
provisions of the New York city housing development corporation act
(article twelve of the private housing finance law); and the transit
construction fund, pursuant to the provisions of article two, title nine
of the public authorities law. The comptroller shall give the director
of the budget notification of any such payment. Such amount or amounts
so withheld by the state comptroller shall be paid to such public
transportation system, which system shall use such amount or amounts for
the payment of the county or city share of its operating expenses as
determined by the legislature or by the formula or formulae developed by
the commissioner. When such amount or amounts are received by such
public transportation system, it shall credit such amounts against any
amounts due and owing such system by the county or city on whose account
such amount was withheld and paid.

5. Any federal financial assistance granted for the specific purpose
of paying the operating expenses of any county, city or public benefit
corporation eligible to receive service payments as a public
transportation system pursuant to this section, received by the state or
any municipality after the effective date of this section, and made
available to any such county, city or public benefit corporation for
application in accordance with the terms of the grant, shall be combined
with any similar federal grant made directly to the county, city or
public benefit corporation to help meet the operating expenses of any
mass transportation services provided for by any such county, city or
public benefit corporation whether directly or by contract. In the event
that the total revenues of any public transportation system, including
subsidies from federal, state or local governments, exceed the total
operating expenses for any such system, excluding depreciation, such
excess shall be utilized by the system to reduce fares or to extend or
increase mass transportation services. A plan to effectuate any such
fare reduction or extension or increase in services shall be submitted
to the commissioner by a public transportation system within thirty days
of receiving notice from the commissioner to prepare and submit such a
plan. Upon approval by the commissioner, such plan with any
modifications made by the commissioner shall be implemented as soon as
practical. Upon the failure of a public transportation system to submit
a plan in the manner provided by this subdivision, the surplus shall be
utilized by such system to reduce the proportionate shares of the state
and the county or city required to make matching payments to the system,
or in the event that no future payments are to be made to such public
transportation system, the system shall proportionately refund such
surplus to the state and the county or city involved.

6. The commissioner may prescribe such regulations as he may deem
appropriate to effectuate the purposes of this section, including, but
not limited to, a uniform system of accounting for the purposes of
reporting pursuant to the provisions of this section. The commissioner
shall also define by rules and regulations, the terms "passenger",
"vehicle or car mile", "the urban area served by any such public
transportation system", "passenger-mile", "chief executive officer",
"mass transportation services", and "service payment", and such other
terms as he deems necessary to carry out the statewide operating
assistance program.

7. The commissioner shall have the power to audit and examine the
accounts, books, contracts, records, documents and papers of any
participating public transportation system in order to effectuate the
purposes and intent of this section.

8. The commissioner is hereby authorized to enter into contracts or
otherwise cooperate with the federal government or any agency or
instrumentality thereof for the purposes set forth in this section. Such
authorization shall include the power to apply for, receive, distribute
or expend federal money available or which may hereafter become
available for such purposes. The distribution of federal monies shall be
in accordance with the requirements of the federal grant, except that in
the absence of any required distribution the commissioner shall
distribute such federal monies in a manner designed to have the maximum
effect on fare stabilization throughout the state.

* NB Expired May 1, 1975