§ 93. Capital projects fund. 1. The fund, heretofore created and known and designated as the post-war reconstruction fund, is hereby continued, and shall be hereafter known as the capital projects fund and classified by the comptroller within the capital projects funds fund type. Such fund shall consist of all moneys collected therefor, or credited or transferred thereto from any other fund or source, pursuant to law.

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

2. Expenditures pursuant to appropriations may be made from the capital projects fund for construction, reconstruction and improvements, including the acquisition of land, for the acquisition or replacement of equipment, for the preparation and review of plans and specifications including engineering and other services, field surveys and sub-surface investigations incidental thereto, and for the payment by the state, as an advance, of the part or share of the cost of any project, improvement or work heretofore or hereafter authorized by an appropriation act. The state comptroller is hereby authorized to accept and receive amounts of money equal to the amounts of money expended by the state pursuant to any such advance from any other capital projects fund appropriation and to deposit the same to the credit of the capital projects fund or, in the event the capital projects fund expenditure has been reimbursed from the proceeds of the sale of state bonds, to the credit of the state fund or subfund providing such initial reimbursement of the capital projects fund so that the state shall be reimbursed for any and all such advances for state capital projects including highways, parkways, grade crossing elimination and rail preservation projects; outdoor recreation and environmental conservation projects; and buildings and other capital facilities required by state departments and agencies. Grants to local governments appropriated from bond proceeds shall also be considered capital projects appropriations for the purpose of this section.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law, no part of any capital projects fund appropriation shall be available until a certificate of approval of availability for so much as shall be necessary to accomplish the purposes designated by the appropriations shall have been issued by the director of the budget, and a copy of such certificate of approval filed with the state comptroller, the chairman of the senate finance committee and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee. Such certificate may be amended by the director of the budget in the same manner as originally authorized. Moneys so approved shall be paid on the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers approved by the public officers of the respective state departments to which such moneys are made available or as otherwise specified in an appropriation.

4. (a) Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the director of the budget that: (i) a capital project for which an appropriation or appropriations, including reappropriations, from such capital projects fund has or have been made as part of a comprehensive construction program to a department or agency of the state, cannot or will not be advanced during the current fiscal year because of shortage or unavailability of men or materials, or because plans for the project are incomplete or require revision, or because of excessive cost, or because of forced delay pending completion of other work, or any combination of such reasons; and (ii) the appropriation or appropriations available therefor accordingly will not be used for such project during such year; a portion of such appropriation or appropriations may be transferred and allocated, as hereinafter in this subdivision provided, to and for any other specific capital project or projects within such program for which an appropriation or appropriations from such fund are in force.

(b) Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the director of the budget that a capital project for which an appropriation or appropriations, including reappropriations, from such capital projects fund has or have been made as part of a comprehensive construction program to a department or agency of the state, can be completed or undertaken and completed, including payment of all costs chargeable thereto, for an amount less than the total amount available from such appropriation or appropriations, the whole or any portion of the amount not required therefor may be transferred and allocated, as hereinafter in this subdivision provided, to and for any other specific capital project or projects within such program for which an appropriation or appropriations from such fund are in force.

(c) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subdivision, transfers and allocations of the type authorized by this subdivision may be made by the director of the budget, subject to the further restrictions of this subdivision, only if he determines, after receiving and reviewing the certifications provided for by paragraph (d) of this subdivision, that the amount appropriated for any capital project to which the transfer and allocation is to be made is insufficient to complete such project, and that such project is necessary and urgent.

(d) The director of the budget shall not authorize a transfer and allocation unless and until the commissioner or other chief executive officer of the state department, agency or corporation to which the appropriation is provided, or the commissioner of general services with respect to capital projects pertaining to the design, construction, reconstruction and improvement of public buildings, immediately upon determining the necessity for a transfer, shall submit to the director of the budget, the chairman of the senate finance committee, and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee on forms and in a manner to be prescribed by the director of the budget a statement certifying: (i) the amount of the requested transfer and an estimate of the timing of the disbursements and expenditures proposed to be made pursuant to the transferred appropriation; (ii) a description of the specific activities to be funded pursuant to the proposed transferred appropriation; (iii) that the amount of the lowest bid received pursuant to law with respect to, or that the amount of the final estimate for, the construction of such a project exceeds the amount appropriated therefor; and (iv) that the project is deemed by him to be necessary and urgent.

(e) In the event that all of the requirements herein before in this subdivision provided for with respect to any such transfer and allocation have been fulfilled, the director of the budget may make and issue a certificate of transfer and allocation of the amount of such appropriation or appropriations to be so transferred and allocated and the amount so specified may be transferred and allocated in accordance with such certificate and may be expended for the capital project to which such transfer and allocation is made except that the director of the budget shall not authorize any transfer which would increase or decrease the total of appropriations including reappropriations for projects sharing the same purpose by an amount in excess of the aggregate of twenty-five percent of the first five million dollars, twenty percent of the second five million dollars, fifteen percent of the third five million dollars and ten percent of any amount in excess of fifteen million dollars, of such total amount as originally appropriated for such purpose.

(f) The director of the budget shall file each certificate of such transfer and allocation made by him with the state comptroller and shall also file a copy of such certificate with the chairman of the senate finance committee and with the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee. Upon such filing the state comptroller shall make the transfer provided for in such certificate and thereupon moneys shall be available for expenditure in accordance with such transfer and allocation.

(g) To the extent that moneys have been or will be encumbered, expended or disbursed against any transferred appropriation prior to the end of the fiscal year then in progress, the governor, at the time he submits the budget bills for the following fiscal year pursuant to section twenty-four of this chapter, shall also submit a budget bill proposing conforming amendments to the previous appropriations bills involved by bracketing the original appropriation amount and by underscoring the new appropriation amount.

5. When, in any act, an appropriation or reappropriation is made from such capital projects fund to any state department or agency or to a city having a population of one million or more or to a public authority owning or operating mass transportation facilities in three or more counties wholly contained in such a city or to a subsidiary of such an authority, for the payment of all or part of the cost of acquisition of omnibuses to be operated by such an authority in such a city no part of such appropriation shall be available for expenditure therefrom until a written agreement is entered into by the department, agency, city or public authority with the director of the budget providing in addition to such other terms and conditions as may be required that a proportionate amount of the total of such moneys shall be made available and expended for the acquisition of omnibuses for each of the established operating depots within the authority in an amount which is at least equal to ninety per cent of the proportion resulting from the annual number of miles traveled, multiplied by the annual number of passengers carried by the omnibuses assigned to the operating depot compared to the sum of the products of such factors for all operating depots within the authority to be determined by the nearest preceding year for which such totals have been ascertained. For the purposes of computing the percentages provided in this subdivision, in any county in which only one depot existed on January first, nineteen hundred seventy-six, any additional depot or depots established after such date shall be deemed to be part of such one depot. In addition, eighty per cent of the omnibuses so acquired shall remain assigned to the original county of assignment for a period of at least five years from the date of acquisition. The provisions of this subdivision shall be controlling and shall supersede any inconsistent provision of this section or chapter or other law, schedule or agreement.