N.Y. Public Officers Law § 70-a: Fees to be paid by public officers for public advertisements

§ 70-a. Fees to be paid by public officers for public advertisements.

The charge for the publication of concurrent resolutions, proposed

constitutional amendments, propositions or questions to be submitted to

the voters of the state, tax sales and official notices required to be

published by state boards, commissions or officers in newspapers of the

state, shall be paid from the treasury on the audit and warrant of the

comptroller, after certification by the proper officer that such a

publication has been regularly made as prescribed by law. The charge for

the publication, if authorized by law, of digests of laws of a local

nature in the newspaper designated to publish such digests shall be paid

by the several counties of the state in which such laws may be

published, upon like certification. The charge for the publication of

concurrent resolutions, proposed constitutional amendments, propositions

or questions to be submitted to the voters of the state or of any

political subdivision thereof or therein, tax sales by the state or any

county or municipality therein, and of all official notices and

advertisements authorized or required by law to be published at the

expense of the state or of a county, city, town, village, public

authority, public benefit corporation or other political or civil

subdivision of the state, shall be at the rate of twenty-nine cents per

line of a column width not less than ten pica ems, provided that in

computing such charge per line the line shall average at least five

words for each insertion in newspapers having less than two thousand

five hundred circulation; twenty-nine and one-half cents per line for

newspapers having two thousand five hundred or more circulation and less

than five thousand; thirty and one-half cents per line for newspapers

having five thousand or more circulation and less than seven thousand

and five hundred; thirty-one and one-half cents per line for newspapers

having seven thousand five hundred or more circulation and less than ten

thousand; thirty-two and one-half cents per line for newspapers having

ten thousand or more circulation and less than fifteen thousand; and

three and one-half cents per line in addition to the thirty-two and

one-half cents for the initial fifteen thousand circulation, for each

additional five thousand circulation up to thirty-five thousand

circulation and one and one-half cents per line for each additional five

thousand possessed by such newspapers. To all of the above rates nine

cents per line shall be added to the initial insertion charge of each

separate advertisement. To all of the above rates for the initial

insertion eight cents per line shall also be added for tabular matter or

intricate composition. Display advertising shall be charged agate

measurement, fourteen lines to each inch, ten to thirteen pica ems wide,

depending on the makeup of the newspaper publishing such copy. Every

newspaper printed, published or having its principal office outside of a

city having a population of over three hundred fifty thousand

inhabitants, as a condition precedent to designation as the official

newspaper of any county, city, town, village or other political or civil

subdivision of the state or for the making of claim for compensation

under the foregoing provisions of this section, must be established at

least one year and entered in the post office as second class matter.

This rate shall not apply to any newspaper printed, principally

circulated or having its principal office in the counties of New York or

Bronx within the first judicial district or in the county of Kings

within the second judicial district or in the county of Richmond within

the thirteenth judicial district or in the county of Nassau within the

tenth judicial district or in the county of Queens within the eleventh

judicial district or in the county of Westchester within the ninth

judicial district or in any city having a population of over one hundred

seventy-five thousand inhabitants within the seventh and eighth judicial

districts, where the rate for such publication may be equal to, but

shall not exceed, the regularly established classified advertising rate

of such newspapers. In reckoning line charges allowance shall be made

for date lines, paragraph endings, titles, signatures, and similar short

lines as full lines where the same are set to conform to the usual rules

of composition. Every newspaper printed, published or having its

principal office outside of a city having a population of over three

hundred fifty thousand inhabitants designated for the publication of

concurrent resolutions, proposed constitutional amendments, propositions

or questions to be submitted to the voters of the state and making claim

for compensation must be established at least one year, entered in the

post office as second class matter and be printed and published in the

town, village or city or its post office address and except newspapers

designated, printed, published and having their principal offices in a

city having a population of more than three hundred fifty thousand

inhabitants, shall attach to such claim an affidavit of the circulation

of such newspaper for the six months period ending March thirty-first or

September thirtieth immediately preceding, which shall be used as the

basis of circulation rating. Papers printed, published and having their

principal offices outside a city having a population of more than three

hundred fifty thousand inhabitants shall accept the minimum rate per

line until such time as they establish to the satisfaction of the state

comptroller sufficient circulation to entitle them to a higher rate. It

shall be the duty of each board of supervisors in the several counties

of the state, in making out the assessment rolls, to assess and levy on

the taxable property of the county whose representatives they are, such

sums as shall be sufficient to defray the expense of publishing the

digest of laws of a local nature, if such publication be authorized,

applicable only to the county affected, in the newspaper designated.

Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, any

publication which was designated and publishing notice as an official

newspaper prior to the year nineteen hundred forty and continued to be

so designated and publishing for at least thirty years after such year,

which has been designated for the publication of concurrent resolutions,

proposed constitutional amendments, propositions or questions to be

submitted to the voters of the state, may make claim for compensation

pursuant to the provisions of this section.