§ 135. Rail safety fee. 1. For the fiscal year commencing on April first, nineteen hundred ninety-one and for each fiscal year thereafter, the expenses of the administration and enforcement of the department's railroad safety functions shall be assessed in the form of a fee.

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

2. The annual fee referred to in subdivision one of this section shall be established and levied by the commissioner, subject to the approval of the director of the division of the budget, in an amount that is sufficient to raise funds to defray the expenses of the department in administering and enforcing its railroad safety and related duties pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and the railroad law. Such expenses shall consist of the direct costs in the department's rail safety program of personal service, the cost of maintenance and operation, retirement contributions, workers' compensation premiums, and health and dental premiums which are paid by the state for or on account of personnel involved in the department's railroad safety program and any other indirect costs involved in administering and enforcing rail safety as deemed appropriate by the commissioner, provided, however, that such indirect costs shall not exceed twenty percent of total direct costs.

3. The fee shall be assessed against all railroads operating in the state of New York and shall be based on railroad gross operating revenues derived or earned from operations within the state in the preceding calendar year. In instances where railroad gross operating revenues are reported on a system basis and its operations cross state lines, the revenues derived or earned from operations within the state shall be the ratio of revenue freight ton miles operated within the state to total revenue freight ton miles times the total railroad gross operating revenues for freight operations and the ratio of passenger miles travelled within the state to total system passenger miles of routes operating through the state times the total gross operating revenues for passenger operations.

4. Fees will be based on revenues from the preceding calendar year and shall be assessed on or before July first and are payable by September first of each year. On or before January first of each year following assessment of fees pursuant to this section, the commissioner shall report to the railroad companies annual costs associated with this assessment.

5. The department shall annually submit a report by February first of each year to the chairmen of the senate finance and assembly ways and means committees which provides: a listing of department positions funded in part or whole by the rail safety fee established pursuant to this section; for the current state fiscal year and the next state fiscal year, the dollar amount of total direct costs and the dollar amount of total indirect costs funded or anticipated to be funded by said rail safety fee; and a listing by railroad of the total annual fee assessed, the total annual fee collected to date and the total annual fee anticipated to be collected by the end of the current state fiscal year and during the next state fiscal year. In addition, the commissioner shall include within this report any plans to increase or decrease said rail safety fee and provide an explanation for, and description of the impact of, such increase or decrease in fee amount.