§ 6 — Powers and duties of the authorities budget office

§ 6. Powers and duties of the authorities budget office. 1. The\nauthorities budget office shall:\n (a) conduct reviews and analysis of the operations, practices and\nreports of state and local authorities to assess compliance with the\nprovisions of this chapter and other applicable provisions of law;\n (b) maintain a comprehensive inventory of state and local authorities\nand subsidiaries and the annual reports of such state and local\nauthorities as defined in section twenty-eight hundred of this chapter;\n (c) verify the existence of all authorities listed in state law;\n (d) review the potential for consolidation or name change of certain\nauthorities;\n (e) assist state and local authorities in improving management\npractices and the procedures by which the activities and financial\npractices of state and local authorities are disclosed to the public;\n (f) make recommendations to the governor, the temporary president of\nthe senate, the speaker of the assembly and the chairs and ranking\nminority members of the following committees: the senate finance\ncommittee, the assembly ways and means committee, the senate committee\non corporations, authorities and commissions and the assembly committee\non corporations, authorities and commissions and authority board members\nconcerning opportunities to improve the performance, reporting,\nreformation, structure and oversight of state and local authorities;\n (g) provide such additional information and analysis as may be\nreasonably requested by the legislature and state comptroller;\n (h) promulgate regulations to effectuate the purposes of this title\nand title one of this article, and article nine of this chapter,\nrelating to the statutory responsibilities of the authorities budget\noffice;\n (i) develop and issue, after consultation with the office of the\nattorney general, a written acknowledgement that a board member must\nexecute at the time that the member takes and subscribes their oath of\noffice, or within sixty days after the effective date of this paragraph\nif the member has already taken and subscribed his or her oath of\noffice, in accordance with subdivision one of section twenty-eight\nhundred twenty-four of this chapter;\n (j) develop a comprehensive definition of public authorities including\na consolidated listing by class and name;\n (k) standardize content and format of state and local authority annual\nreports;\n (l) assess individual authorities and based upon their ability and\nresources, set a date by which changes made pursuant to this title shall\nbe implemented;\n (m) issue recommendations to the legislature and governor on setting\ndebt limitations for authorities without statutorily required debt\nlimits;\n (n) make recommendations to the legislature and governor with respect\nto options for, and whether there should be, compensation for boards of\ndirectors; and\n (o) review the potential for and make recommendations to the\nlegislature and governor regarding change in the terms of office of\npublic authorities board members.\n 2. The authorities budget office shall have the authority to:\n (a) request and receive from any state or local authority, agency,\ndepartment or division of the state or political subdivision such\nassistance, personnel, information, books, records, other documentation\nand cooperation as may be necessary to perform its duties;\n (b) enter into cooperative agreements with other government offices to\nefficiently carry out its work and not duplicate resources;\n (c) receive and act upon complaints or recommendations from the public\nor other persons or entities regarding any authority covered by this\ntitle;\n (d) initiate formal investigations in response to complaints or\nappearances of non-compliance by an authority;\n (e) issue subpoenas pertaining to investigations which such office is\nauthorized to conduct under this title, for the purposes of effectuating\nthe powers and duties of this title;\n (f) publicly warn and censure authorities for non-compliance with this\ntitle, and to establish guidelines for such actions;\n (g) recommend to the entity that appointed the officer or director\nsuspension or dismissal of officers or directors, based on information\nthat is, or is made, available to the public under law;\n (h) report suspected criminal activities to the attorney general and\nother prosecutorial agencies;\n (i) compel any authority which is deemed to be in non-compliance with\nthis title and title one of this article or article nine of this chapter\nto submit to the authorities budget office a detailed explanation of\nsuch failure to comply; and\n (j) commence a special proceeding in supreme court, when it does not\nreceive from a state or local authority upon request information, books,\nrecords or other documentation necessary to perform its duties, seeking\nan order directing the production of the same.\n 3. The reports and non-proprietary information received by and\nprepared by the authorities budget office shall be made available to the\npublic, to the extent practicable, through the internet.\n