§ 135 — Rail safety fee

§ 135. Rail safety fee. 1. For the fiscal year commencing on April\nfirst, nineteen hundred ninety-one and for each fiscal year thereafter,\nthe expenses of the administration and enforcement of the department's\nrailroad safety functions shall be assessed in the form of a fee.\n 2. The annual fee referred to in subdivision one of this section shall\nbe established and levied by the commissioner, subject to the approval\nof the director of the division of the budget, in an amount that is\nsufficient to raise funds to defray the expenses of the department in\nadministering and enforcing its railroad safety and related duties\npursuant to the provisions of this chapter and the railroad law. Such\nexpenses shall consist of the direct costs in the department's rail\nsafety program of personal service, the cost of maintenance and\noperation, retirement contributions, workers' compensation premiums, and\nhealth and dental premiums which are paid by the state for or on account\nof personnel involved in the department's railroad safety program and\nany other indirect costs involved in administering and enforcing rail\nsafety as deemed appropriate by the commissioner, provided, however,\nthat such indirect costs shall not exceed twenty percent of total direct\ncosts.\n 3. The fee shall be assessed against all railroads operating in the\nstate of New York and shall be based on railroad gross operating\nrevenues derived or earned from operations within the state in the\npreceding calendar year. In instances where railroad gross operating\nrevenues are reported on a system basis and its operations cross state\nlines, the revenues derived or earned from operations within the state\nshall be the ratio of revenue freight ton miles operated within the\nstate to total revenue freight ton miles times the total railroad gross\noperating revenues for freight operations and the ratio of passenger\nmiles travelled within the state to total system passenger miles of\nroutes operating through the state times the total gross operating\nrevenues for passenger operations.\n 4. Fees will be based on revenues from the preceding calendar year and\nshall be assessed on or before July first and are payable by September\nfirst of each year. On or before January first of each year following\nassessment of fees pursuant to this section, the commissioner shall\nreport to the railroad companies annual costs associated with this\nassessment.\n 5. The department shall annually submit a report by February first of\neach year to the chairmen of the senate finance and assembly ways and\nmeans committees which provides: a listing of department positions\nfunded in part or whole by the rail safety fee established pursuant to\nthis section; for the current state fiscal year and the next state\nfiscal year, the dollar amount of total direct costs and the dollar\namount of total indirect costs funded or anticipated to be funded by\nsaid rail safety fee; and a listing by railroad of the total annual fee\nassessed, the total annual fee collected to date and the total annual\nfee anticipated to be collected by the end of the current state fiscal\nyear and during the next state fiscal year. In addition, the\ncommissioner shall include within this report any plans to increase or\ndecrease said rail safety fee and provide an explanation for, and\ndescription of the impact of, such increase or decrease in fee amount.\n