Bill Text: NY S05590 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires all public authorities owning, leasing, and controlling critical infrastructure to study the potential consequences of privatization.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS [S05590 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S05590-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5590 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 8, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions AN ACT requiring all public authorities owning, leasing, and controlling critical infrastructure to study the potential consequences of priva- tization The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative findings. 1. New York state must have suffi- 2 cient numbers of properly designed and maintained pieces of critical 3 transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels, roads, airports, 4 ports, container ports, railroads and rapid transit services in order to 5 retain its economic competitiveness and grow its economy. 6 2. Much of the state's existing critical infrastructure is aging, is 7 experiencing capacity problems, has had maintenance problems, or in some 8 other manner has become a candidate for re-engineering, rebuilding, 9 replacement or supplementation. 10 3. The most critical and expensive transportation infrastructure in 11 New York state to re-engineer, rebuild or replace is under the control 12 or ownership of public authorities, and such critical transportation 13 infrastructure, from time to time, is under consideration for sale, 14 long-term lease or other transfer of ownership or control to the private 15 business sector. 16 § 2. For the purposes of this act, the following terms shall have the 17 following meanings: 18 1. "critical transportation infrastructure" shall refer to bridges, 19 tunnels, roads, airports, ports, container ports, railroads and rapid 20 transit services owned by a state or local public authority; 21 2. "privatization" shall refer to the sale, long-term lease or other 22 transfer of ownership or control of pieces of critical transportation 23 infrastructure to the private business sector; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD04055-01-3S. 5590 2 1 3. "comparable projects" shall refer to existing privatization initi- 2 atives in the United States comparable in scope, scale and value to the 3 critical transportation infrastructure controlled by state or local 4 public authorities; and 5 4. "privatization report" shall refer to the report created pursuant 6 to this act. 7 § 3. 1. All public authorities who are currently in the process of 8 issuing concessions or selling or otherwise transferring, or issuing 9 notices of inquiry ("NOIs") or requests for proposal ("RFPs") for leas- 10 ing, or selling or otherwise transferring control of any critical trans- 11 portation infrastructure, or who have done so in the past ten years, 12 shall issue a study reporting on the effects of privatization of crit- 13 ical transportation infrastructure. 14 2. (a) Each public authority shall issue its individual privatization 15 report to the assembly committees on corporations, authorities and 16 commissions, economic development, transportation, and ways and means, 17 and to the senate committees on commerce, economic development and small 18 business, corporations, authorities and commissions, and transportation. 19 (b) Each public authority's privatization report shall evaluate in 20 detail the following: 21 (i) the impact that sale or transfer of control of its critical 22 infrastructure would have upon the authority's ability to pay any and 23 all debt it has issued, or succeeded to, that is guaranteed or secured 24 by any revenues arising from the authority's critical infrastructure, or 25 by the ownership of such critical infrastructure; 26 (ii) whether the critical infrastructure involved any existing priva- 27 tization initiatives in the United States are comparable in scope, scale 28 and value to the critical infrastructure controlled by the public 29 authority; 30 (iii) the progress to date of any comparable projects and whether any 31 such projects have experienced cost overruns or delays, or otherwise 32 have failed, or succeeded, in meeting the deadlines and costs put forth 33 by the private entity. 34 3. (a) The privatization report shall be due on or within 14 days of 35 December 1, 2024. Within 90 days after the date each public authority 36 submits the report provided for in subdivision one of this section to 37 the committees, such committees may, severally or collectively, submit 38 further issues for study and inclusion in such report, which said public 39 authorities shall study and include within such report within 60 days 40 after receipt of any such submission, at which point said public author- 41 ities shall submit the privatization report to the governor, the tempo- 42 rary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority 43 leaders of the senate and assembly, the chairperson and ranking minority 44 member of the senate corporations, authorities and commissions commit- 45 tee, and the chairperson and ranking minority member of the assembly 46 corporations, authorities and commissions committee. 47 (b) The governor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker 48 of the assembly, the minority leaders of the senate and assembly, the 49 chairperson and ranking minority member of the senate corporations, 50 authorities and commissions committee, and the chairperson and ranking 51 minority member of the assembly corporations, authorities and commis- 52 sions committee shall have a period of 90 days within which to submit 53 further issues for study and inclusion in such report, which said public 54 authorities shall study and include within such report within 60 days 55 after receipt of any such submission.S. 5590 3 1 § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 2 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment 3 and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation 4 of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and 5 completed on or before such effective date.
