S 715: Establishes the Long Island transportation account within the New York city transportation assistance fund.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 715 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. RHOADS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation AN ACT to amend the public authorities law and the tax law, in relation to establishing the Long Island transportation account The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivisions 4, 5, 6 and 7 of section 1270-i of the public 2 authorities law are renumbered subdivisions 5, 6, 7 and 8 and a new 3 subdivision 4 is added to read as follows: 4 4. Moneys in the Long Island transportation account shall be used for 5 the exclusive purpose of funding the operating and capital costs of 6 metropolitan transportation authority facilities, equipment and services 7 in the counties of Nassau and Suffolk, and any projects improving trans- 8 portation connections from such counties to New York County. Such funds 9 may be used for infrastructure including construction, reconstruction, 10 reconditioning and preservation of transportation systems, facilities 11 and equipment, acquisition of property, and for operating costs includ- 12 ing personal services, non-personal services, fringe benefits, and 13 contractual services. Funds may also be used to fund a toll reduction 14 program for any crossings under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan 15 transportation authority or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Funds may 16 also be used to pay or to reimburse the authority for its payment of 17 debt service and reserve requirements on that portion of authority bonds 18 and notes that have been issued by the authority specifically for the 19 authorized purpose of this account. Notwithstanding any law to the 20 contrary, final approval of the use of any funds paid into the Long 21 Island transportation account shall be unanimously approved by three 22 members of the metropolitan transportation authority capital program 23 review board, established pursuant to section twelve hundred 24 sixty-nine-a of this title, as designated under this subdivision. For EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02640-01-5 
 S. 715 2 1 purposes of such final approvals the three voting members shall be: the 2 member appointed upon recommendation by the temporary president of the 3 senate; the member appointed upon recommendation by the speaker of the 4 assembly; and the member appointed by the governor. 5 § 2. Subdivisions 1, 6 and 7 of section 1270-i of the public authori- 6 ties law, as added by section 4 of part NNN of chapter 59 of the laws of 7 2018 and subdivisions 6 and 7 as renumbered by section one of this act, 8 are amended to read as follows: 9 1. The authority shall create and establish a fund to be known as the 10 "New York city transportation assistance fund" which shall be kept sepa- 11 rate from and shall not be commingled with any other moneys of the 12 authority. The New York city transportation assistance fund shall 13 consist of [three] four separate accounts: (i) the "subway action plan 14 account"; (ii) the "outer borough transportation account"; [and] (iii) 15 the "general transportation account"; and (iv) the "Long Island trans- 16 portation account". The authority shall make deposits in the subway 17 action plan account of the moneys received by it pursuant to the 18 provisions of subdivision (c) of section twelve hundred ninety-nine-H of 19 the tax law in accordance with the provisions thereof, shall make depos- 20 its in the outer borough transportation account of fifty percent of the 21 moneys received by it pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (d) of 22 section twelve hundred ninety-nine-H of the tax law in accordance with 23 the provisions thereof, shall make deposits in the Long Island transpor- 24 tation account of fifty percent of the moneys received by it pursuant to 25 the provisions of subdivision (d) of section twelve hundred 26 ninety-nine-H of the tax law in accordance with the provisions thereof, 27 and shall make deposits in the general transportation account of the 28 moneys received by it pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (e) of 29 section twelve hundred ninety-nine-H of the tax law in accordance with 30 the provisions thereof, and pursuant to the provisions of section eleven 31 hundred eleven-C of the vehicle and traffic law. 32 6. Any revenues deposited in the subway action plan account, the outer 33 borough transportation account, the Long Island transportation account, 34 or the general transportation account pursuant to subdivision one of 35 this section shall be used exclusively for the purposes described, 36 respectively, in subdivisions two, three, and [four] five of this 37 section. Such revenues shall only supplement and shall not supplant any 38 federal, state, or local funds expended by the metropolitan transporta- 39 tion authority, such authority's affiliates or subsidiaries for such 40 respective purposes. 41 7. Any revenues deposited into the New York city transportation 42 assistance fund pursuant to subdivision one of this section shall not be 43 diverted into the general fund of the state, any other fund established 44 by the chapter of the laws of two thousand eighteen which added this 45 subdivision, any other fund maintained for the support of any other 46 governmental purpose, or for any other purpose not authorized by subdi- 47 visions two, three [and], four, and five of this section. 48 § 3. Subdivision (d) of section 1299-H of the tax law, as added by 49 section 2 of part NNN of chapter 59 of the laws of 2018, is amended to 50 read as follows: 51 (d) The amount of revenues so certified that are in excess of the 52 amounts deposited as provided in subdivision (c) of this section, shall 53 be paid over by the fifteenth business day of each succeeding month from 54 such account, without appropriation, fifty percent into the outer 55 borough transportation account and fifty percent into the Long Island 56 transportation account of the New York city transportation assistance 
 S. 715 3 1 fund established pursuant to section twelve hundred seventy-i of the 2 public authorities law. 3 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.