N.Y. Transportation Corporations Law § 42: Duty to supply water; contracts with municipalities

§ 42. Duty to supply water; contracts with municipalities. Such

corporation shall supply each city, town or village through which the

conduits or mains of such corporation may pass, or wherein such

corporation may have organized, and the inhabitants thereof, with pure

and wholesome water, at reasonable rates. The board of trustees of any

incorporated village and the water commissioners or other board or

officials performing the duties of water commissioners and having charge

of the water supply of any city, shall have the power to contract in the

name and behalf of the municipal corporation for the term of one year or

more for the delivery by such corporation to the village or city of

water, through hydrants or otherwise, for the extinguishment of fires

and for sanitary and other public purposes. The amount agreed to be paid

shall be annually raised as a part of the expenses of such village or

city, and shall be assessed, levied and collected in the same manner as

other expenses, and when collected shall be kept as a separate fund, and

paid according to the terms and conditions of such contract. No such

contract shall be made for a longer period than ten years nor for an

annual amount exceeding in the aggregate two and one-half mills for

every dollar of the taxable property of such village or city, except (a)

upon the petition of a majority of the taxable inhabitants of any such

village or city, or of the portion thereof to be supplied, or (b) upon a

proposition to authorize the same submitted to a vote of the electors of

the village or city, in the manner provided by the village law or city

charter, and approved by a majority of the voters entitled to vote and

voting thereon at an annual election or a special election duly called.

Such contract shall be for a term not exceeding twenty years.