§ 1299-f. Special powers of the authority. In order to effectuate the purposes of this title: 1. The authority may acquire, by purchase, gift, grant, transfer, contract or lease, any transportation facility, wholly or partially within the Niagara Frontier transportation district or any part thereof, or the use thereof, and may enter into any joint service arrangements as hereinafter provided. Any such acquisition or joint service arrangement shall be authorized only by resolution of the authority approved by not less than a majority of the whole number of members of the authority then in office. In addition to and not in limitation of any other power conferred upon the authority by the provisions of this title, the authority is hereby empowered and authorized in respect of any property and assets at any time owned or held by, or under the jurisdiction of, the Buffalo and Fort Erie public bridge authority, to accept and receive any such interest therein as it may have been or may hereafter be designated by the state by law to receive, and in respect thereof, except as otherwise provided by the designating statute, it shall have and exercise all of the powers and jurisdiction herein conferred upon it in respect of any other property, rights, assets, facilities and projects in any other manner acquired or from any other source received by it pursuant to the provisions of this title.
2. The authority may on such terms and conditions as the authority may determine necessary, convenient or desirable itself establish, construct, effectuate, operate, maintain, renovate, improve, extend or repair any such transportation facility, or may provide for such establishment, construction, effectuation, operation, maintenance, renovation, improvement, extension or repair by contract, lease, or other arrangement on such terms as the authority may deem necessary, convenient or desirable with any person, including but not limited to any common carrier or freight forwarder, the state, any state agency, the federal government, any other state or agency or instrumentality thereof, any public authority of this or any other state, any political subdivision or municipality of the state, or the nation. In connection with the operation of any such transportation facility, the authority may establish, construct, effectuate, operate, maintain, renovate, improve, extend or repair or may provide by contract, lease or other arrangement for the establishment, construction, effectuation, operation, maintenance, renovation, improvement, extension or repair of any related services and activities it deems necessary, convenient or desirable, including but not limited to the transportation and storage of freight and the United States mail, feeder and connecting transportation, parking areas, transportation centers, stations and related facilities.
3. The authority may establish, levy and collect or cause to be established, levied and collected and, in the case of a joint service arrangement, join with others in the establishment, levy and collection of such fares, tolls, rentals, rates, charges and other fees as it may deem necessary, convenient or desirable for the use and operation of any transportation facility and related services operated by the authority or by a subsidiary corporation of the authority or under contract, lease or other arrangement, including joint service arrangements, with the authority. Any such fares, tolls, rentals, rates, charges or other fees for the transportation of passengers shall be established and changed only if approved by resolution of the authority adopted by not less than a majority of the whole number of members of the authority then in office and only after a public hearing, provided however, that fares, tolls, rentals, rates, charges or other fees for the transportation of passengers on any transportation facility which are in effect at the time that the then owner of such transportation facility becomes a subsidiary corporation of the authority or at the time that operation of such transportation facility is commenced by the authority or is commenced under contract, lease or other arrangement including joint service arrangements, with the authority may be continued in effect without such a hearing. Such fares, tolls, rentals, rates, charges and other fees shall be established as may in the judgment of the authority be necessary to maintain the combined operations of the authority and its subsidiary corporations on a self-sustaining basis. The said operations shall be deemed to be on a self-sustaining basis as required by this title, when the authority is able to pay or cause to be paid from revenue and any other funds or property actually available to the authority and its subsidiary corporations (a) as the same shall become due, the principal of and interest on the bonds and notes and other obligations of the authority and of such subsidiary corporations, together with the maintenance of proper reserves therefor, (b) the cost and expense of keeping the properties and assets of the authority and its subsidiary corporations in good condition and repair, and (c) the capital and operating expenses of the authority and its subsidiary corporations. The authority may contract with the holders of bonds and notes with respect to the exercise of the powers authorized by this section.
4. The authority may establish and, in the case of joint service arrangements, join with others in the establishment of such schedules and standards of operations and such other rules and regulations including but not limited to rules and regulations governing the conduct and safety of the public as it may deem necessary, convenient or desirable for the use and operation of any transportation facility and related services operated by the authority or under contract, lease or other arrangement, including joint service arrangements, with the authority. Such rules and regulations governing the conduct and safety of the public shall be filed with the department of state in the manner provided by section one hundred two of the executive law. In the case of any conflict between any such rule or regulation of the authority governing the conduct or safety of the public and any local law, ordinance, rule or regulation, such rule or regulation of the authority shall prevail. Violation of any such rule or regulation of the authority governing the conduct or the safety of the public in or upon any facility of the authority shall constitute an offense and shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days or both, or may in the alternative be designated a transit infraction punishable by the imposition by the transit adjudication bureau established pursuant to the provisions of this title of a civil penalty in an amount for any one violation of not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars, exclusive of interest or costs assessed thereon, in accordance with a schedule of such penalties as may from time to time be established by the authority. There shall be no penalty or increment in fine by virtue of a respondent's timely exercise of his right to a hearing or appeal. The rules may provide, in addition to any other sanctions, for the confiscation of tokens, tickets, cards or other fare media that have been forged, counterfeited, improperly altered or transferred, or otherwise used in a manner inconsistent with such rules.
5. The authority may acquire, hold, own, lease, establish, construct, effectuate, operate, maintain, renovate, improve, extend or repair any of its facilities through, and cause any one or more of its powers, duties, functions or activities to be exercised or performed by, one or more wholly owned subsidiary corporations of the authority and may transfer to or from any such corporation, or between such corporations, any moneys, real property or other property or the services of any officers, employees or consultants for any of the purposes of this title. The directors or members of each such subsidiary corporation shall be the same persons holding the offices of members of the authority. Each such subsidiary corporation and any of its property, functions and activities shall have all of the privileges, immunities, tax exemptions and other exemptions of the authority and of the authority's property, functions and activities. Each such subsidiary corporation shall be subject to the restrictions and limitations to which the authority may be subject. Each such subsidiary corporation shall be subject to suit in accordance with section twelve hundred ninety-nine-p of this title. The employees of any such subsidiary corporation, except those who are also employees of the authority, shall not be deemed employees of the authority.
If the authority shall determine that one or more of its subsidiary corporations should be in the form of a public benefit corporation, it shall create each such public benefit corporation by executing and filing with the secretary of state a certificate of incorporation, which may be amended from time to time by filing, which shall set forth the name of such public benefit subsidiary corporation, its duration, the location of its principal office, and any or all of the purposes of acquiring, owning, leasing, establishing, constructing, effectuating, operating, maintaining, renovating, improving, extending or repairing one or more facilities of the authority. Each such public benefit subsidiary corporation shall be a body politic and corporate and shall have all those powers vested in the authority by the provisions of this title which the authority shall determine to include in its certificate of incorporation except the power to contract indebtedness.
Any other provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding the authority may elect to maintain consolidated records of account for itself and its subsidiary corporations and to report on a consolidated basis with regard to the moneys and activities of the authority and its subsidiary corporations, and the authority shall not be required to keep separate records of account for or to report separately with regard to moneys or activities of any of its subsidiary corporations or of the authority itself apart from its subsidiary corporations or with regard to transfers of property or services between the authority and its subsidiary corporations or between said subsidiary corporations.
The Niagara Frontier port authority shall be deemed to be a subsidiary corporation for the purposes of this subdivision.
Whenever any state, political subdivision, municipality, commission, agency, officer, department, board, division or person is authorized and empowered for any of the purposes of this title to co-operate and enter into agreements with the authority such state, political subdivision, municipality, commission, agency, officer, department, board, division or person shall have the same authorization and power for any of such purposes to co-operate and enter into agreements with a subsidiary corporation of the authority.
6. The authority, in its own name or in the name of the state, may apply for and receive and accept grants of property, money and services and other assistance offered or made available to it by any person, government or agency whatever, which it may use to meet capital or operating expenses and for any other use within the scope of its powers, and to negotiate for the same upon such terms and conditions as the authority may determine to be necessary, convenient or desirable.
7. The authority may do all things it deems necessary, convenient or desirable to manage, control and direct the maintenance and operation of transportation facilities, equipment or real property operated by or under contract, lease or other arrangement with the authority. Except as hereinafter specially provided, no municipality or political subdivision, including but not limited to a county, city, village, town or school or other district shall have jurisdiction over any facilities of the authority or any of its activities or operations. The local laws, resolutions, ordinances, rules and regulations of a municipality or political subdivision, heretofore or hereafter adopted, conflicting with this title or any rule or regulation of the authority, shall not be applicable to the activities or operations of the authority, or the facilities of the authority, except such facilities that are devoted to purposes other than transportation purposes. Each municipality or political subdivision, including but not limited to a county, city, village, town or district in which any facilities of the authority are located shall provide for such facilities police, fire and health protection services of the same character and to the same extent as those provided for residents of such municipality or political subdivision.
The jurisdiction, supervision, powers and duties of the department of transportation of the state under the transportation law shall not extend to the authority in the exercise of any of its powers under this title. The authority may agree with such department for the execution by such department of any grade crossing elimination project or any grade crossing separation reconstruction project along any railroad facility operated by the authority or by one of its subsidiary corporations or under contract, lease or other arrangement with the authority. Any such project shall be executed as provided in article ten of the transportation law and the railroad law, respectively, and the costs of any such project shall be borne as provided in such laws, except that the authority's share of such costs shall be borne by the state.
