*§ 18-a. Statewide mass transportation operating assistance program. 1. Within the amounts made available therefor by appropriation, a statewide mass transportation operating assistance program is hereby established for the purpose of making payments toward the operating expenses of public transportation systems. For the purposes of this section, the term public transportation system shall mean any public benefit corporation constituting a transportation authority which provides or contracts for the provision of (under joint support arrangements) mass transportation services, or a subsidiary thereof, or any county or city which provides or contracts for the provision of (pursuant to section one hundred nineteen-r of the general municipal law) mass transportation services.

2. a. On and after May first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, the commissioner shall pay to each public transportation system that makes an application therefor, in quarterly installments, a mass transportation operating assistance service payment to be determined and computed as follows: the chief executive officer of each such system shall certify to the commissioner not more than thirty days nor less than fifteen days prior to the date of commencement of any quarter for which an installment is payable, the total number of passengers such system estimates that it will carry and the total number of vehicle or car miles such system estimates that its equipment will travel in revenue service during the quarter for which such installment is to be paid. Upon receipt of any such certification, the commissioner shall provide to the public transportation system a service payment, which payment shall be computed by adding the sum of (i) the certified number of passengers multiplied by one and four-tenths cents per passenger, (ii) the certified number of vehicle or car miles multiplied by nine cents per vehicle or car mile, and (iii) the amount obtained by multiplying the total number of persons within the urban area served by the public transportation system, as determined by the most current federal decennial census, by ten cents per capita; provided, however, that any service payment made by the commissioner to any county or city on account of such county's or city's contracts for mass transportation services (pursuant to section one hundred nineteen-r of the general municipal law), shall not include an amount computed under item (iii) above. Such quarterly installments shall be payable not later than the tenth day of each successive quarter, with the quarters commencing on the first day of May, August, November and February, respectively; provided, however, that for the first quarter of May first through July thirty-first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, such quarterly installment may be made on or before June fifteenth, nineteen hundred seventy-four and the chief executive officer of any public transportation system making application hereunder shall make the required certifications not more than thirty nor less than fifteen days prior to such date.

b. Each public transportation system receiving a quarterly service payment pursuant to this subdivision shall certify to the commissioner, within five days of the end of each quarter for which a service payment was received, the actual total number of passengers carried by the system during such quarter and the actual total vehicle or car miles the system's equipment traveled in revenue service during such quarter, and based upon such actual totals, the commissioner shall make such adjustments as may be appropriate in the amount of the service payment for such system for the succeeding quarter.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision two of this section, the commissioner may establish with respect to any public transportation system a maximum service payment, limiting the amount of state assistance for which such system may qualify, where it appears that the total amount of money appropriated or allocated to a group of unspecified public transportation systems is less than the total amount of money for which the entire group is eligible. Such maximum service payments may be established on a quarterly or annual basis, in the discretion of the commissioner; provided, however, that the sum of all of the maximum service payments established during the period covered by the appropriation, shall equal the amount of the appropriation or allocation.

4. a. For any quarter commencing on or after May first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, any county or city served by a public transportation system that receives a service payment pursuant to subdivision two of this section shall, not later than the fifteenth day following the commencement of the quarter for which the payment is made or the date on which the payment is made, whichever is later, pay to the public transportation system a sum equal to such service payment, except that in the case of a service payment made to a public transportation system on account of mass transportation services provided to more than one county (considering the city of New York to be one county), each county receiving such services from such system shall pay to the system a sum equal to its share of the service payment, which sum shall be determined in accordance with the percentage or dollar amounts established for such county by the legislature.

b. The payment required of any county or city by paragraph a of this subdivision shall be in addition to all other forms of assistance now provided or scheduled to be provided to any public transportation system by any county or city, whether directly or indirectly; provided, however, that where any county or city pays all of the operating deficit of a public transportation system within such county or city, the amount of assistance provided by such county or city to such public transportation system may be reduced to the extent of the service payment, but in no event to an amount less than the service payment.

c. In the event that a county or city shall fail to make to a public transportation system any of the payments required to be made by it under this subdivision, the chief executive officer of the public transportation system or such other person as the commissioner shall designate shall certify to the state comptroller such amount due and owing such public transportation system and the state comptroller shall withhold an equivalent amount from state aid allocated to such county or city from highway aid, the motor fuel tax and the motor vehicle registration fee distributed pursuant to section one hundred twelve of the highway law, or per capita local assistance pursuant to section fifty-four of the state finance law subject to the following limitations: prior to withholding amounts allocated to carry such county or city, the comptroller shall pay in full any amount due the state of New York municipal bond bank agency, on account of any such county's or city's obligation to such agency; the city university construction fund, pursuant to the provisions of the city university construction fund act; the New York city housing development corporation, pursuant to the provisions of the New York city housing development corporation act (article twelve of the private housing finance law); and the transit construction fund, pursuant to the provisions of article two, title nine of the public authorities law. The comptroller shall give the director of the budget notification of any such payment. Such amount or amounts so withheld by the state comptroller shall be paid to such public transportation system, which system shall use such amount or amounts for the payment of the county or city share of its operating expenses as determined by the legislature or by the formula or formulae developed by the commissioner. When such amount or amounts are received by such public transportation system, it shall credit such amounts against any amounts due and owing such system by the county or city on whose account such amount was withheld and paid.

5. Any federal financial assistance granted for the specific purpose of paying the operating expenses of any county, city or public benefit corporation eligible to receive service payments as a public transportation system pursuant to this section, received by the state or any municipality after the effective date of this section, and made available to any such county, city or public benefit corporation for application in accordance with the terms of the grant, shall be combined with any similar federal grant made directly to the county, city or public benefit corporation to help meet the operating expenses of any mass transportation services provided for by any such county, city or public benefit corporation whether directly or by contract. In the event that the total revenues of any public transportation system, including subsidies from federal, state or local governments, exceed the total operating expenses for any such system, excluding depreciation, such excess shall be utilized by the system to reduce fares or to extend or increase mass transportation services. A plan to effectuate any such fare reduction or extension or increase in services shall be submitted to the commissioner by a public transportation system within thirty days of receiving notice from the commissioner to prepare and submit such a plan. Upon approval by the commissioner, such plan with any modifications made by the commissioner shall be implemented as soon as practical. Upon the failure of a public transportation system to submit a plan in the manner provided by this subdivision, the surplus shall be utilized by such system to reduce the proportionate shares of the state and the county or city required to make matching payments to the system, or in the event that no future payments are to be made to such public transportation system, the system shall proportionately refund such surplus to the state and the county or city involved.

6. The commissioner may prescribe such regulations as he may deem appropriate to effectuate the purposes of this section, including, but not limited to, a uniform system of accounting for the purposes of reporting pursuant to the provisions of this section. The commissioner shall also define by rules and regulations, the terms "passenger", "vehicle or car mile", "the urban area served by any such public transportation system", "passenger-mile", "chief executive officer", "mass transportation services", and "service payment", and such other terms as he deems necessary to carry out the statewide operating assistance program.

7. The commissioner shall have the power to audit and examine the accounts, books, contracts, records, documents and papers of any participating public transportation system in order to effectuate the purposes and intent of this section.

8. The commissioner is hereby authorized to enter into contracts or otherwise cooperate with the federal government or any agency or instrumentality thereof for the purposes set forth in this section. Such authorization shall include the power to apply for, receive, distribute or expend federal money available or which may hereafter become available for such purposes. The distribution of federal monies shall be in accordance with the requirements of the federal grant, except that in the absence of any required distribution the commissioner shall distribute such federal monies in a manner designed to have the maximum effect on fare stabilization throughout the state.

* NB Expired May 1, 1975