N.Y. Public Authorities Law § 2777: Statement of legislative findings and purpose

§ 2777. Statement of legislative findings and purpose. The legislature

hereby finds and declares as follows:

1. The economic well-being of the state and the general welfare of its

people require adequate, safe, secure and efficient aviation and

transportation facilities at a reasonable cost to the people.

2. The strengthening and improvement of aviation facilities and

related services is a matter of vital importance not only to the

residents of the capital district but to all the state's residents and

is, therefore, a matter of state concern.

3. In order to insure a healthy economy for such area and to promote

the general welfare of its residents, it is necessary to expand and

improve the existing aviation facilities and services in Albany county

in such a manner as to stimulate and promote increased local, state,

national and international air travel and commerce through the capital

district.

4. The health, welfare, safety and security of the state's residents

and of those passengers using air transportation requires coordinated

operation of aviation facilities and services in Albany county by a

public benefit airport authority.

5. The purposes of such authority shall be: (a) to promote safe,

secure, efficient and economical air transportation by preserving and

enhancing airport capacity; (b) to acquire, construct, reconstruct,

continue, develop, equip, expand, improve, maintain, finance and operate

aviation and other related facilities and services within Albany county;

(c) to stimulate and promote economic development, trade and tourism;

(d) to form an integral part of a safe and effective nationwide system

of airports to meet the present and future needs of civil aeronautics

and national defense and to assure inclusion of the authority's

facilities in state, national and international programs for air

transportation and for airport or airway capital improvement, all in

accordance with the provisions of this title; and (e) to insure that

aviation facilities authorized pursuant to this title shall provide for

the protection and enhancement of the natural resources and the quality

of the environment of the state and the capital district area.

6. Such purposes are in all respects public purposes for the benefit

of the people of the state of New York and for which public funds may be

expended and both the county and the authority in carrying out their

respective powers and duties under this title shall be deemed to be

acting in a governmental capacity. The acquisition, construction,

reconstruction, development, expansion, improvement, equipping,

operation and maintenance of any project financed or undertaken by the

authority or the county shall be deemed to be the performance of an

essential governmental function by the authority or the county acting in

its governmental capacity, whether such project shall be owned or

operated by the authority or by any person or public corporation.

7. It is hereby found and declared that it has been and remains the

policy of the state of New York to promote equal opportunity in

employment for all persons, without discrimination on account of race,

creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or marital status,

to promote equality of economic opportunity for minority group members

and women, and business enterprises owned by them, and to eradicate the

effects of private and governmental discrimination which has erected and

continues to maintain barriers that unreasonably impair access by

minority and women-owned business enterprises to state contract

opportunities.

Recent reviews and analyses of contracting in New York, including the

study by the division of minority and women's business development of

the department of economic development entitled "Opportunity Denied! A

Study of Racial and Sexual Discrimination Related to Government

Contracting in New York State," confirm through direct evidence of

racial and sexual discrimination in and by New York state sufficient to

justify race and sex conscious remedies. For the purpose of furthering

the state's compelling interest in eradicating the effects of racial and

sexual discrimination therefore, it is necessary and proper that article

fifteen-A of the executive law, concerning participation by minority

group members and women and business enterprises owned by them, shall

apply to the Albany county airport authority.