§ 73-j. Special provisions relating to aid. 1. Within one hundred
twenty days after the adoption of a state budget containing an
appropriation implementing this article, the commissioner shall send to
the county executive, if any, or the chairperson of the county
legislative body of each rural county, a copy of this article and
general information relating to the procedure to be followed to obtain
the aid provided for in this article including, but not limited to, the
following:

a. the intent of the program;

b. program guidelines, including the time when applications must be
submitted; the time when applications will be accepted or rejected; the
time when the applicant must complete the program for which aid has been
given;

c. potential county benefit, including an indication of the level of
the funds to which each county would be entitled should it participate
in the program as defined in this article.

2. The failure to file an application for aid in any year shall not
impair the right of a rural county to file an application for aid in any
subsequent year.

3. Within six months of the time of receipt of any application for
aid, pursuant to section seventy-three-g of this article, the
commissioner shall notify the applicant that such application was
approved and aid shall be paid to such county or the commissioner will
reject such application and state the reasons for such rejection. The
rejection shall not disqualify an applicant from resubmitting an
application for aid. In the event, after consultation with the
commissioner, the application is modified it may thereafter be
resubmitted for further consideration.

4. Each request submitted to the commissioner for a financial
assistance grant under this article shall be accompanied by an itemized
preliminary budget, certified by the chief financial officer of the
county, identifying expected eligible costs, amounts and sources of
grant funding including any applicable county matching funds.

a. Within sixty days after the completion of the grant, as determined
by the terms of the grant, the chief executive officer of the county, if
any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body shall forward to
the commissioner a certified financial statement identifying actual
costs incurred, grant funds expended or encumbered, including any
applicable county matching funds on forms provided by the commissioner.
After the expenditure of any applicable county matching funds, should
any state funds paid to a county remain unexpended or unencumbered upon
completion of the grant, as determined by the terms of the grant, the
commissioner will credit said state funds to the county's planning or
operating assistance grant for the subsequent year. In no event, shall
the county's subsequent year's grant exceed the sum of forty-five
thousand dollars for planning or twenty-five thousand dollars for
operating aid.

b. Should a county's activities in coordinated public transportation
services be terminated at any time, the chief executive officer of the
county, if any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body shall
advise the commissioner of such termination in writing and return to the
commissioner any unexpended state funds paid to the county together with
the final certified financial statement indicating the expenditure of
any grant funds received.

5. Except as provided for in section seventy-three-g of this article,
any moneys paid to rural counties by the commissioner shall be paid in
quarterly installments at the beginning of each quarter, commencing on
the first day of January of each year, unless the commissioner approves
an alternative method of payment in accordance with subdivision nine of
this section.

6. Except as provided for in section seventy-three-g of this article,
a rural county's apportionment of funds made available in accordance
with this article may be used for capital, operating and or
administrative assistance to provide rural public transportation. The
commissioner, in consultation with the interagency coordinating
committee on rural public transportation, may award other grants for
operating and capital expenses.

7. Recipients of aid shall annually submit to the commissioner such
data as he or she may deem necessary to review the program and to
recommend future funding levels.

8. Following formal adoption of a rural county's coordinated public
transportation service plan and approval of that plan by the
commissioner, and upon receipt of written notice from a rural county
that its coordinated public transportation service is about to commence
in accordance with such approved plan, the commissioner shall forward
operating aid applications to the chief executive officer of the county,
if any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body, along with
instructions and a timetable for their completion. The commissioner
shall advise the applicant county of his action on each such application
within ninety days of its receipt.

9. Funds appropriated for the purpose of implementation of this
article may be allocated in whole or in part to a rural county prior to
the time actual expenditures are incurred if the payment is first
approved by the commissioner. Applications for advance payment shall be
made by the county in accordance with rules of the commissioner. Each
application shall specifically state why such advance payment is
required.

10. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations in order
to implement the provisions of this article.

11. When a rural county has adopted and implemented a coordinated
public transportation service plan in accordance with rules and
regulations issued by the commissioner pursuant to the provisions of
this article and such plan has been approved by the commissioner, then
the department may, from among all applications within said county for
financial aid to purchase vehicles provided by section sixteen (b) (two)
of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Act of nineteen hundred
sixty-four as amended, give priority consideration for funding to those
applications that provide coordinated public transportation service in
accordance with the county's plan.

12. When included and operated as an integral part of a coordinated
public transportation service plan approved by the commissioner and
adopted pursuant to the provisions of this article, and consistent with
the Urban Mass Transportation Act of nineteen hundred sixty-four as
amended, vehicles obtained through section sixteen (b) (two) of said
federal Urban Mass Transportation Act, may be eligible to carry persons
other than elderly and disabled on a regular basis, provided that the
transportation needs of elderly and/or disabled persons described in the
recipient's original section sixteen (b) (two) grant application are met
by the adopted coordinated public transportation service and the
transportation needs of other elderly and disabled persons in the rural
county are met under the county's adopted plan.

13. Public transportation providers utilizing state or federal transit
assistance moneys for the purchase of vehicles pursuant to this article,
may purchase said vehicles through state contract or by public bid as
required by section one hundred three of the general municipal law.

14. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article to the
contrary, no application for financial assistance made pursuant to
section seventy-three-g of this article shall be awarded by the
commissioner for less than fifty-five thousand dollars or for less than
the amount requested unless the commissioner shall, in writing, prior to
making the award, each year certify the reasons why such applicant was
awarded less than fifty-five thousand dollars or an amount less than
requested. Such certification, including the reasons for such action,
shall be sent to the applicant, the interagency coordinating committee
on rural public transportation, the secretary of the senate finance
committee, the secretary of the assembly ways and means committee, the
director of the office of rural affairs and the director of the
legislative commission on the development of rural resources.

15. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article to the
contrary, no grant for operating aid, as authorized by section
seventy-three-h of this article, shall be made by the commissioner to
any county for less than thirty-five thousand dollars in any one year
unless the commissioner shall, in writing, prior to making the grant,
each year certify the reasons why such county was awarded less than
thirty-five thousand dollars. Such certification including the reasons
for such action shall be sent to such county, the interagency
coordinating committee on rural public transportation, the secretary of
the senate finance committee, the secretary of the assembly ways and
means committee, the director of the office of rural affairs and the
director of the legislative commission on the development of rural
resources.