Terms Used In New York Laws > General Municipal > Article 2 - General Municipal Finances

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Asset forfeiture: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Authority: shall mean the public benefit corporation created by section twenty-seven hundred three of this title, known as the development authority of the north country. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Bonds: shall mean s the bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness issued by the authority pursuant to this title and the provisions of this title relating to bonds and bondholders shall apply with equal force and effect to notes and noteholders, respectively, unless the context otherwise clearly requires. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Chairman: means the chairman of the dormitory authority. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 1695
• Construction: shall mean the acquisition, erection, building, alteration, improvement, increase, enlargement, extension, reconstruction, renovation or rehabilitation of any project financed under the provisions of this title; the inspection and supervision thereof; and the engineering, architectural, legal, fiscal and economic investigations and studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures and other actions preliminary or incidental thereto. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Existing sewer system: shall mean all sewers, including, without limitation, trunk, intercepting, connecting, lateral and other sewers, storm water drains, pumping stations, disposal or treatment plants or works, structures, appliances, equipment and other adjuncts thereto, comprising the portion of the system of sewerage owned by any participating county or municipality within a participating county, as delineated on a map filed by the governing body of such county or municipality with the secretary of the state of New York pursuant to this title. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: A government corporation that insures the deposits of all national and state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. ^{Source: OCC}
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Municipality: shall mean any county, city, town, village, refuse district under the county law, improvement district under the town law, any other such instrumentality, including any agency, authority or public corporation of the state, or any of the foregoing, or any combination thereof. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Participating counties: shall mean the counties of Jefferson, St. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: shall mean any natural person, partnership, association, joint venture or corporation, exclusive of a public corporation. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Project: shall mean a sewerage facility, solid waste management facility, water facility, or any portion of which, the planning, development, financing, acquisition, construction, operation or maintenance is authorized to be undertaken in whole or in part by the authority pursuant to this title. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: shall mean lands, structures, improvements franchises and interests in land, including lands under water, waterfront property, marginal streets and riparian rights, space rights and air rights and any and all other things and rights usually included within said term and any fixtures, equipment and articles of personal property affixed to or used in connection therewith. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Resource recovery: shall mean the separation, extraction or recovery of usable materials, energy or heat from solid waste through source separation, incineration, recycling centers or other programs, projects or facilities. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Revenues: shall mean all rates, fees, rents, charges and other income derived by the authority from its operations. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Sewerage facility: shall mean a system of trunk, intercepting and connecting, lateral and outlet sewers, storm water drains, pumping and ventilating stations, disposal or treatment plants or works, and other appliances and structures, which in the judgment of the authority will provide an effectual and advantageous means for relieving the participating counties and municipalities within the participating counties from pollution created by the sewage and waste and relieving the participating counties and municipalities within the participating counties from inadequate sanitary and storm water drainage by providing for the sanitary disposal or treatment of the sewage thereof, or such sections or parts of such systems as the authority may from time to time deem it proper or convenient to construct, consistent with purpose of this title. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Solid waste: shall mean all putrescible and non-putrescible solid wastes, including, but not limited to, materials or substances discarded or rejected, whether as being spent, useless, worthless or in excess to the owners at the time of such discard or rejection or for any other reason, is being accumulated, stored, or physically, chemically or biologically treated prior to being discarded, has served its intended use, or is a manufacturing or mining by-product, including, but not limited to, garbage, refuse, and other discarded solid materials, including solid waste materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations and from community activities, sludges from air or water pollution control facilities or water supply treatment facilities, rubbish, ashes, contained gaseous material, incinerator residue, demolition and construction debris and offal, but not including sewage and other highly diluted water-carried materials or substances and those in gaseous form, special nuclear or by-product material within the meaning of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and waste which appears on the list of hazardous waste promulgated by the commissioner of environmental conservation pursuant to section 27-0903 of the environmental conservation law. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Solid waste management facility: shall mean any facility, plant, works, system, building, structure, improvement, machinery, equipment, fixture or other real or personal property which is to be used, occupied or employed for or is incidental to the collecting, receiving, transporting, storage, processing, or disposal of solid waste or the recovery by any means of any material or energy product or resource therefrom including, but not limited to, recycling centers, transfer stations, shredding or baling facilities, rail haul or maritime facilities, collection vehicles, processing systems, resource recovery facilities, steam and electric generating and transmission facilities, including auxiliary facilities to supplement or temporarily replace such generating facilities, steam distribution facilities, sanitary landfills, leachate treatment facilities, plants and facilities for compacting, composting or pyrolization of solid wastes, secure land burial facilities, landspreading facilities, surface impoundments and waste oil storage, reprocessing and refining facilities, incinerators and other solid waste disposal, reduction or conversion facilities, and "resource recovery equipment" and "disposal equipment" as such terms are defined in subdivisions four and five of section 51-0903 of the environmental conservation law. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Source separation: shall mean the segregation of recyclable materials from the solid waste stream at the point of generation for separate collection, sale or other disposition. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• State: shall mean the state of New York. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: shall mean the United States of America or any department, agency or instrumentality thereof acting on behalf of the United States of America. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Water facility: shall mean any water supply or distribution system or systems, including any plants, works, instrumentalities or parts thereof and appurtenances thereto, lands, easements, rights in land and water rights, right-of-way, contract rights, franchises, approaches, connections, dams, reservoirs, water mains and pipe lines, pumping stations and equipment, or any other property incidental to and included in such system or part thereof, and any improvements, extensions and betterments. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 2702