§ 73-j. Special provisions relating to aid. 1. Within one hundred twenty days after the adoption of a state budget containing an appropriation implementing this article, the commissioner shall send to the county executive, if any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body of each rural county, a copy of this article and general information relating to the procedure to be followed to obtain the aid provided for in this article including, but not limited to, the following:

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a. the intent of the program;

b. program guidelines, including the time when applications must be submitted; the time when applications will be accepted or rejected; the time when the applicant must complete the program for which aid has been given;

c. potential county benefit, including an indication of the level of the funds to which each county would be entitled should it participate in the program as defined in this article.

2. The failure to file an application for aid in any year shall not impair the right of a rural county to file an application for aid in any subsequent year.

3. Within six months of the time of receipt of any application for aid, pursuant to section seventy-three-g of this article, the commissioner shall notify the applicant that such application was approved and aid shall be paid to such county or the commissioner will reject such application and state the reasons for such rejection. The rejection shall not disqualify an applicant from resubmitting an application for aid. In the event, after consultation with the commissioner, the application is modified it may thereafter be resubmitted for further consideration.

4. Each request submitted to the commissioner for a financial assistance grant under this article shall be accompanied by an itemized preliminary budget, certified by the chief financial officer of the county, identifying expected eligible costs, amounts and sources of grant funding including any applicable county matching funds.

a. Within sixty days after the completion of the grant, as determined by the terms of the grant, the chief executive officer of the county, if any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body shall forward to the commissioner a certified financial statement identifying actual costs incurred, grant funds expended or encumbered, including any applicable county matching funds on forms provided by the commissioner. After the expenditure of any applicable county matching funds, should any state funds paid to a county remain unexpended or unencumbered upon completion of the grant, as determined by the terms of the grant, the commissioner will credit said state funds to the county's planning or operating assistance grant for the subsequent year. In no event, shall the county's subsequent year's grant exceed the sum of forty-five thousand dollars for planning or twenty-five thousand dollars for operating aid.

b. Should a county's activities in coordinated public transportation services be terminated at any time, the chief executive officer of the county, if any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body shall advise the commissioner of such termination in writing and return to the commissioner any unexpended state funds paid to the county together with the final certified financial statement indicating the expenditure of any grant funds received.

5. Except as provided for in section seventy-three-g of this article, any moneys paid to rural counties by the commissioner shall be paid in quarterly installments at the beginning of each quarter, commencing on the first day of January of each year, unless the commissioner approves an alternative method of payment in accordance with subdivision nine of this section.

6. Except as provided for in section seventy-three-g of this article, a rural county's apportionment of funds made available in accordance with this article may be used for capital, operating and or administrative assistance to provide rural public transportation. The commissioner, in consultation with the interagency coordinating committee on rural public transportation, may award other grants for operating and capital expenses.

7. Recipients of aid shall annually submit to the commissioner such data as he or she may deem necessary to review the program and to recommend future funding levels.

8. Following formal adoption of a rural county's coordinated public transportation service plan and approval of that plan by the commissioner, and upon receipt of written notice from a rural county that its coordinated public transportation service is about to commence in accordance with such approved plan, the commissioner shall forward operating aid applications to the chief executive officer of the county, if any, or the chairperson of the county legislative body, along with instructions and a timetable for their completion. The commissioner shall advise the applicant county of his action on each such application within ninety days of its receipt.

9. Funds appropriated for the purpose of implementation of this article may be allocated in whole or in part to a rural county prior to the time actual expenditures are incurred if the payment is first approved by the commissioner. Applications for advance payment shall be made by the county in accordance with rules of the commissioner. Each application shall specifically state why such advance payment is required.

10. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations in order to implement the provisions of this article.

11. When a rural county has adopted and implemented a coordinated public transportation service plan in accordance with rules and regulations issued by the commissioner pursuant to the provisions of this article and such plan has been approved by the commissioner, then the department may, from among all applications within said county for financial aid to purchase vehicles provided by section sixteen (b) (two) of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Act of nineteen hundred sixty-four as amended, give priority consideration for funding to those applications that provide coordinated public transportation service in accordance with the county's plan.

12. When included and operated as an integral part of a coordinated public transportation service plan approved by the commissioner and adopted pursuant to the provisions of this article, and consistent with the Urban Mass Transportation Act of nineteen hundred sixty-four as amended, vehicles obtained through section sixteen (b) (two) of said federal Urban Mass Transportation Act, may be eligible to carry persons other than elderly and disabled on a regular basis, provided that the transportation needs of elderly and/or disabled persons described in the recipient's original section sixteen (b) (two) grant application are met by the adopted coordinated public transportation service and the transportation needs of other elderly and disabled persons in the rural county are met under the county's adopted plan.

13. Public transportation providers utilizing state or federal transit assistance moneys for the purchase of vehicles pursuant to this article, may purchase said vehicles through state contract or by public bid as required by § 103 of the general municipal law.

14. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article to the contrary, no application for financial assistance made pursuant to section seventy-three-g of this article shall be awarded by the commissioner for less than fifty-five thousand dollars or for less than the amount requested unless the commissioner shall, in writing, prior to making the award, each year certify the reasons why such applicant was awarded less than fifty-five thousand dollars or an amount less than requested. Such certification, including the reasons for such action, shall be sent to the applicant, the interagency coordinating committee on rural public transportation, the secretary of the senate finance committee, the secretary of the assembly ways and means committee, the director of the office of rural affairs and the director of the legislative commission on the development of rural resources.

15. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article to the contrary, no grant for operating aid, as authorized by section seventy-three-h of this article, shall be made by the commissioner to any county for less than thirty-five thousand dollars in any one year unless the commissioner shall, in writing, prior to making the grant, each year certify the reasons why such county was awarded less than thirty-five thousand dollars. Such certification including the reasons for such action shall be sent to such county, the interagency coordinating committee on rural public transportation, the secretary of the senate finance committee, the secretary of the assembly ways and means committee, the director of the office of rural affairs and the director of the legislative commission on the development of rural resources.