N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law § 20.13: Special powers of a trust

§ 20.13. Special powers of a trust. 1. A trust shall have such

special powers with respect to assisting participating cultural

institutions or other not-for-profit cultural organizations as are

provided by special law; provided, that a trust may not develop or cause

to be developed a combined-use facility for use or occupancy by a

participating cultural institution unless (i) in a municipality such

institution shall have had average annual admissions of at least five

hundred thousand persons as shown on the records of such institution for

a period of at least five years prior to either the effective date of

this article or the date on which a trust first enters into an agreement

for the development of a combined-use facility for the use or occupancy

by such institution, (ii) in a city having a population of one hundred

twenty-five thousand or more, such institution shall have had average

annual admissions of at least fifty thousand persons as shown on the

records of such institution for such period and (iii) in any other city,

such institution shall have such minimum average annual admissions as

are set forth in the special law creating a trust; provided, however,

with respect to a participating cultural institution that is a public

television station with respect to which a trust entered an agreement

prior to January first, nineteen hundred ninety the foregoing shall not

apply and provided further that the decision of the trust in determining

such average annual admissions shall be final.

2. A trust may not acquire real property by condemnation, unless

otherwise provided by special law.

3. For so long as any real property, consisting of all or any part of

the non-institutional portion of a combined-use facility or in or on

which all or any part of such portion prior to completion is designed to

be and upon completion is developed shall be exempt from real property

taxation pursuant to section 20.33 of this article, the owners from time

to time of such real property shall pay to the trust which has developed

or approved the developer of such facility, annual or other periodic

amounts, as tax-equivalency payments, at least equal to the real

property taxes that would have otherwise been paid or payable in respect

of such real property; provided, however, that the special law creating

a trust may provide a method for calculating such real property taxes

for purposes of determining the amount of such tax-equivalency payments;

and provided further that the special law creating a trust shall specify

the purposes for which the trust shall use or expend such

tax-equivalency payments, the means for enforcing such payments and the

priorities in favor of a trust in connection with such enforcement.

4. A trust and the participating cultural institution with which the

trust has entered into an agreement for the development of a

combined-use facility, any facility for a not-for-profit cultural

organization or a public television facility prior to January first,

nineteen hundred ninety shall each have all rights provided by law, as

if each were the owner of such facility and the real property in or on

which such facility is or is designed to be developed, to contest in

whole or in part any assessment or revised assessment of the value of

such facility and property, or any portion thereof, by appropriate legal

proceedings, and for purposes of this subdivision four, each shall be

deemed to be a person aggrieved. Each owner required to make

tax-equivalency payments to a trust shall have all rights provided by

law, as if he were the owner of the real property with respect to which

he is required to make such payments, to contest in whole or in part any

assessment or revised assessment of the value of such real property, and

each such owner shall be deemed to be a person aggrieved for purposes of

this subdivision.

5. Subject to any agreement with holders of its notes or bonds, a

trust may enter into an agreement to pay or cause to be paid, by means

which may include an agreement with a participating cultural institution

in a municipality or a not-for-profit cultural institution in a county,

a developer or an owner, annual sums in lieu of taxes to any

municipality or political subdivision of the state, in respect of any

real property which is exempt from taxation pursuant to section 20.33 of

this article and is located in such municipality or political

subdivision, or the special law creating a trust may provide for such

payments in lieu of taxes.