N.Y. Public Authorities Law § 1012-a: Emergency contributions to county of Niagara and city of Niagara Falls

§ 1012-a. Emergency contributions to county of Niagara and city of

Niagara Falls. 1. On June seventh, nineteen hundred fifty-six a collapse

of the rock wall of the Niagara river resulted in the substantial

destruction of a hydro-electric power generating plant which annually

produced more than three billion kilowatt hours of low-cost electric

energy, most of which was used by industrial plants employing great

numbers of workers in the city of Niagara Falls and vicinity. These

industries would be forced to curtail their operations drastically or

abandon them and thousands of jobs would be lost if the industries were

not able to obtain necessary power at high cost on a temporary basis

from the hydro-electric power commission of Ontario. This commission is

using not only Ontario's share of the water of the Niagara river under

the treaty signed on February twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred fifty,

between the United States and Canada, but also a large part of New

York's share of such water. To provide for the retention and expansion

of existing industry and the attraction of new industry vital to the

economy of the area and to the defense of the United States, it is

essential that power authority of the state of New York complete a power

project to utilize all of the waters of the Niagara available in the

United States. The destruction caused by the rock slide resulted in

reducing to the extent of some ten million dollars the total valuation

of real property subject to taxation in the city of Niagara Falls. This

will result in a temporary tax loss to the county of Niagara and the

city of Niagara Falls of approximately seven hundred thousand dollars

per year with resulting hardship to taxpayers. An increase in the tax

base sufficient to offset such loss cannot be brought about until

industrial activities in the area are expanded and increased through the

availability of low-cost power from such new New York hydro-electric

power project. An emergency justifying financial relief to the county of

Niagara and city of Niagara Falls exists and will continue until such a

project is completed. It is recognized that public authorities

constitute valuable governmental entities in the state, performing

important functions on a businesslike basis through the use of private

funds borrowed from prudent investors without state or municipal credit,

and that the integrity and independence of these authorities must be

maintained and their present exemption from taxation protected.

2. Power authority of the state of New York is hereby authorized to

include in financing the cost of its Niagara river project a total sum

of (1) three million dollars in addition to that otherwise required and

to contribute such additional total sum as emergency relief to the

county of Niagara and city of Niagara Falls on the basis of decreasing

annual allotments over a five-year construction and expansion period;

such annual allotments shall be allocated for school and other purposes

in the same proportion as other moneys collected as real property taxes

in such city; and (2) the power authority of the state of New York is

hereby authorized to expend the sum of one and one-half million dollars

for local improvements in the city of Niagara Falls incidental to or

reasonably related to the Niagara power project of the authority.