Public-benefit nonprofit corporations share characteristics with government agencies, but they are exempt from many state and local regulations.
This allows public authorities to make potentially risky capital and infrastructure investments without directly putting the credit of New York State or its municipalities on the line.
The growing influence of public authorities over state and local financing, coupled with their ability to avoid regulations applicable to government agencies, has led to calls for reform.
As early as 1851, the legislature began to search for ways to evade the constitutional debt limit in order to finance public works projects.
[6] The court held that the state had a moral obligation to repay the debts if canal revenues proved insufficient, and thus the certificates were deemed "an evasion if not a direct violation of the constitution".
However, amendments to the 1938 Constitution overruled this case and completely disclaimed the state's responsibility for any public authority debt.
Because of this, he has been criticized for wasteful spending, patronage, and refusing to consider public opposition to his projects.
The 1938 constitutional amendments attempted to limit the proliferation of public authorities by specifying that they could be created only by special act of the state legislature.
In City of Rye v. MTA, 24 N.Y.2d 627 (1969), the court of appeals explained that "The debates of the 1938 Convention indicate that the proliferation of public authorities after 1927 was the reason for the enactment of section 5 of article X.... Abbott Low Moffat, who supported this proposal, told the convention that its purpose was 'to require the Legislature to pass directly itself upon the establishment of each new authority, and to prevent the enactment of general laws pursuant to which a municipal corporation can itself create a corporation of the authority type'".
An example is the Empire State Development Corporation, which decided in 2007 to dissolve 13 subsidiaries and merge 25 others into a single holding company.
[10] The 1938 Constitution "expressly empowered public authorities to contract debt independently of the State".
Board members have fixed terms and are, at least in theory, considered to be more independent of political influence than elected politicians and appointed agency heads.
Importantly, authority board members are now required to attend training sessions on ethics and governance issues.
Fully titled the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, according to its official website, the authority is: a New York State public benefit corporation whose mission is to plan, create, co-ordinate and maintain a balanced community of commercial, residential, retail, and park space within its designated 92-acre site on the southern tip of Manhattan.The Long Island Power Authority or LIPA ["lie-pah"], a municipal subdivision of the State of New York, was created under the Long Island Power Act of 1985 to acquire the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO)'s assets and securities.
A second Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the first, acquired LILCO's transmission and distribution system in June 1998.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority manages public transportation in the New York metropolitan area (this includes the New York City Subway and MTA Regional Bus Operations systems, as well as the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Railroad).
This company closed down, but the Overcoat Development Corporation continues to exist to service the long-term lease it signed.
Some of the public benefit corporations outside of New York City's metropolitan area, or serving the entire state, are listed below.
Its staffing compensation exceeded its operating expenses in 2017 by almost $1.5 million in the 2018 New York State Authorities Budget Office report.
The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) is a public benefit organization which provides transportation services to the Capital District of New York State (Albany, Schenectady, and Rensselaer counties plus part of Saratoga).
This includes bus service serving the cities of Syracuse, Utica, Rome, Oswego and Auburn.
The Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority consists of numerous subsidiaries, including: The Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation operates Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York.
Class C public authorities have local jurisdiction and very few are of significance outside of economic development within towns, villages, and small cities.
According to the editorial: [New York State Comptroller Alan] Hevesi has offered a comprehensive bill that incorporates some of the best ideas in other legislation circulating in Albany [to reform the authorities].
The correct name of the entity the Times was speaking of is the Overcoat Development Corporation,[27] which was designed to lure a clothing manufacturer to New York from Indiana in the 1980s.
[28]In 2004, the New York State Comptroller's Office, headed at the time by Alan Hevesi, became concerned about the debt public authorities were generating: Most public authorities have the ability to borrow funds by issuing debt.