N.Y. General Municipal Law § 858: Purposes and powers of the agency

§ 858. Purposes and powers of the agency. The purposes of the agency

shall be to promote, develop, encourage and assist in the acquiring,

constructing, reconstructing, improving, maintaining, equipping and

furnishing industrial, manufacturing, warehousing, commercial, research,

renewable energy and recreation facilities including industrial

pollution control facilities, educational or cultural facilities,

railroad facilities, horse racing facilities, automobile racing

facilities, renewable energy projects and continuing care retirement

communities, provided, however, that, of agencies governed by this

article, only agencies created for the benefit of a county and the

agency created for the benefit of the city of New York shall be

authorized to provide financial assistance in any respect to a

continuing care retirement community, and thereby advance the job

opportunities, health, general prosperity and economic welfare of the

people of the state of New York and to improve their recreation

opportunities, prosperity and standard of living; and to carry out the

aforesaid purposes, each agency shall have the following powers:

(1) To sue and be sued;

(2) To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure;

(3) To acquire, hold and dispose of personal property for its

corporate purposes;

(4) To acquire by purchase, grant, lease, gift, pursuant to the

provisions of the eminent domain procedure law, or otherwise and to use,

real property or rights or easements therein necessary for its corporate

purposes in compliance with the local zoning and planning regulations

and shall take into consideration regional and local comprehensive land

use plans and state designated heritage area management plans, and to

sell, convey, mortgage, lease, pledge, exchange or otherwise dispose of

any such property in such manner as the agency shall determine. In the

case of railroad facilities, however, the phrase to use real property or

rights or easements therein shall not be interpreted to include

operation by the agency of rail service upon or in conjunction with such

facilities.

(5) To make by-laws for the management and regulation of its affairs

and, subject to agreements with its bondholders, for the regulation of

the use of a project or projects.

(6) With the consent of the municipality, to use agents, employees and

facilities of the municipality, paying the municipality its agreed

proportion of the compensation or costs;

(7) To appoint officers, agents and employees, to prescribe their

qualifications and to fix their compensation and to pay the same out of

funds of the agency, provided, however, that an elected officer of the

municipality may not serve as a compensated officer, agent or employee

of the agency;

(8) (a) To appoint an attorney, who may be the counsel of the

municipality, and to fix the attorney's compensation for services which

shall be payable to the attorney, and to retain and employ private

consultants for professional and technical assistance and advice;

(b) An attorney acting as bond counsel for a project must file with

the agency a written statement in which the attorney identifies each

party to the transaction which such attorney represents. If bond counsel

provides any legal services to parties other than the agency the written

statement must describe the nature of legal services provided by such

bond counsel to all parties to the transaction, including the nature of

the services provided to the agency.

(9) To make contracts and leases, and to execute all instruments

necessary or convenient to or with any person, firm, partnership or

corporation, either public or private; provided, however, that any

extension of an existing contract, lease or other agreement entered into

by an agency with respect to a project shall be guided by the provisions

of this article;

(10) To acquire, construct, reconstruct, lease, improve, maintain,

equip or furnish one or more projects;

(11) To accept gifts, grants, loans, or contributions from, and enter

into contracts or other transactions with, the United States and the

state or any agency of either of them, any municipality, any public or

private corporation or any other legal entity, and to use any such

gifts, grants, loans or contributions for any of its corporate purposes;

(12) To borrow money and to issue bonds and to provide for the rights

of the holders thereof;

(13) To grant options to renew any lease with respect to any project

or projects and to grant options to buy any project at such price as the

agency may deem desirable;

(14) To designate the depositories of its money either within or

without the state;

(15) To enter into agreements requiring payments in lieu of taxes.

Such agreements shall be in writing and in addition to other terms shall

contain: the amount due annually to each affected tax jurisdiction (or a

formula by which the amount due can be calculated), the name and address

of the person, office or agency to which payment shall be delivered, the

date on which payment shall be made, and the date on which payment shall

be considered delinquent if not paid. Unless otherwise agreed by the

affected tax jurisdictions, any such agreement shall provide that

payments in lieu of taxes shall be allocated among affected tax

jurisdictions in proportion to the amount of real property tax and other

taxes which would have been received by each affected tax jurisdiction

had the project not been tax exempt due to the status of the agency

involved in the project. A copy of any such agreement shall be delivered

to each affected tax jurisdiction within fifteen days of signing the

agreement. In the absence of any such written agreement, payments in

lieu of taxes made by an agency shall be allocated in the same

proportions as they had been prior to January first, nineteen hundred

ninety-three for so long as the agency's activities render a project

non-taxable by affected tax jurisdictions. A notification of the

expiration of such agreement shall be delivered to the affected tax

jurisdiction two years prior to the expiration of such agreement and

immediately upon early termination of an agreement;

(16) To establish and re-establish its fiscal year; and

(17) To do all things necessary or convenient to carry out its

purposes and exercise the powers expressly given in this title.