N.Y. Public Authorities Law § 1226-r: Exemption from taxes, assessments and certain fees

§ 1226-r. Exemption from taxes, assessments and certain fees. 1. The

authority shall not be required to pay any fees, taxes, special ad

valorem levies or assessments, whether state or local, including but not

limited to fees, taxes, special ad valorem levies or assessments on real

property, franchise taxes, sales taxes or other excise taxes, upon any

property owned by it or under its jurisdiction, control or supervision,

or upon the uses thereof, or upon its activities in the operation and

maintenance of its facilities or any fares, tolls, rentals, rates,

charges, fees, revenues or other income received by the authority.

Notwithstanding the previous sentence, the authority shall be required

to pay water and pure water fees or charges as may be negotiated by any

public corporation. The authority shall at all times be exempt from any

filing, mortgage recording or transfer fees or taxes in relation to

instruments filed, recorded or transferred by it or on its behalf. The

construction, use, occupation or possession of any property owned by the

authority or the county, including improvements thereon, by any person

or public corporation under a lease, lease and sublease or any other

agreement shall not operate to abrogate or limit the foregoing

exemption, notwithstanding that the lessee, user, occupant or person in

possession shall claim ownership for federal income tax purposes.

2. Any bonds issued pursuant to this title together with the income

there from as well as the property of the authority shall at all times

be exempt from taxes, except for transfer and estate taxes. The state

hereby covenants with the purchasers and with all subsequent holders and

transferees of bonds issued by the authority pursuant to this title, in

consideration of the acceptance of and payment for the bonds, that the

bonds of the authority issued pursuant to this title and the income

therefrom and all revenues, monies, and other property pledged to secure

the payment of such bonds shall at all times be free from taxation,

except for transfer and estate taxes.

3. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the water board shall pay to each

municipality and each school district as hereinafter provided located

either in the service area or within municipalities in which real

property of the water board is located in monthly payments commencing on

the first day of the fiscal year of such municipality or school district

in the year succeeding the calendar year in which this title shall take

effect:

(a) to all school districts annually determined by the water board to

have lost real property tax revenues as a consequence of the transfer of

any previously taxable real property by either the board of water supply

or any municipality to the water board, the sum of nine hundred

seventy-five thousand dollars in the first fiscal year and such sum

annually thereafter in each of the next twenty-two years equal to the

sum so paid the preceding year decreased by forty-two thousand three

hundred ninety-one dollars, the amount to be paid to each individual

school district to be determined annually by the water board in

proportion to the amount of real property taxes received by each such

school district from the board of water supply in fiscal year nineteen

hundred ninety-three--nineteen hundred ninety-four;

(b) to each town which the water board annually determines will

provide services to the water board during the next ensuing calendar

year, for a period of forty years commencing in the calendar year

succeeding the year after the date of enactment of this title, the

annual sum of seventy-four thousand seven hundred thirty-seven dollars,

which sum shall be increased every sixth year by five per centum;

provided, that the town of Trenton shall initially receive sixty

thousand dollars of such initial aggregate amount with the remainder

being distributed to the town of Russia in the amount of nine thousand

five hundred dollars, to the town of Norway in the amount of four

thousand three hundred eighteen dollars, to the town of Ohio in the

amount of eight hundred ninety-four dollars and to the town of Salisbury

in the amount of twenty-five dollars; which such amounts being increased

by such five per centum as herein provided, and thereafter as the water

board shall determine;

(c) to the county of Oneida, in each year during which the auditorium

commonly known as the Utica memorial auditorium, as the same may be

reconstructed, enlarged or modified, or replaced by a building serving a

similar function at a different location within the service area, shall

be operated as an auditorium for the benefit of the residents of the

county of Oneida or any portion thereof, the annual sum of five hundred

thousand dollars, which sum shall be increased every sixth year by ten

per centum, for a period of forty years; and thereafter as the water

board shall determine;

(d) to the city of Utica, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars

during each of the next ten years, commencing in the calendar year

succeeding the year after the date of enactment of this title; the sum

of three hundred fifty thousand dollars in each of the following five

years; the sum of four hundred fifty-five thousand dollars in each of

the following five years; the sum of three hundred seventy-five thousand

dollars in each of the following five years; the sum of four hundred

twenty-five thousand dollars in each of the following five years; the

sum of four hundred seventy-five thousand dollars in each of the

following five years; the sum of five hundred twenty-five thousand

dollars in each of the following five years; and thereafter as the water

board shall determine.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, any payment in

lieu of tax payments described in paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of this

subdivision, (i) may be decreased at any time for any period by

resolution of the governing body of the water board approved by the

affirmative vote of at least seventy-five per centum of such governing

body and provided further that any such decrease shall be uniform for

all payment in lieu of tax payments to the affect that any percentage

decrease to any municipality or school district shall be equally reduced

to each other municipality or school district, and (ii) as the water

board shall determine, be in priority to or subordinate to any other

payments required to be made pursuant to this title, including, without

limitation, the payment of sums to the authority or to any trustee

representing the holders of any bonds issued by the authority.