6. Powers and duties of the authorities budget office. 1. The authorities budget office shall:
(a) conduct reviews and analysis of the operations, practices and reports of state and local authorities to assess compliance with the provisions of this chapter and other applicable provisions of law;
(b) maintain a comprehensive inventory of state and local authorities and subsidiaries and the annual reports of such state and local authorities as defined in section twenty-eight hundred of this chapter;
(c) verify the existence of all authorities listed in state law;
(d) review the potential for consolidation or name change of certain authorities;
(e) assist state and local authorities in improving management practices and the procedures by which the activities and financial practices of state and local authorities are disclosed to the public;
(f) make recommendations to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly and the chairs and ranking minority members of the following committees: the senate finance committee, the assembly ways and means committee, the senate committee on corporations, authorities and commissions and the assembly committee on corporations, authorities and commissions and authority board members concerning opportunities to improve the performance, reporting, reformation, structure and oversight of state and local authorities;
(g) provide such additional information and analysis as may be reasonably requested by the legislature and state comptroller;
(h) promulgate regulations to effectuate the purposes of this title and title one of this article, and article nine of this chapter, relating to the statutory responsibilities of the authorities budget office;
(i) develop and issue, after consultation with the office of the attorney general, a written acknowledgement that a board member must execute at the time that the member takes and subscribes their oath of office, or within sixty days after the effective date of this paragraph if the member has already taken and subscribed his or her oath of office, in accordance with subdivision one of section twenty-eight hundred twenty-four of this chapter;
(j) develop a comprehensive definition of public authorities including a consolidated listing by class and name;
(k) standardize content and format of state and local authority annual reports;
(l) assess individual authorities and based upon their ability and resources, set a date by which changes made pursuant to this title shall be implemented;
(m) issue recommendations to the legislature and governor on setting debt limitations for authorities without statutorily required debt limits;
(n) make recommendations to the legislature and governor with respect to options for, and whether there should be, compensation for boards of directors; and
(o) review the potential for and make recommendations to the legislature and governor regarding change in the terms of office of public authorities board members.
2. The authorities budget office shall have the authority to:
(a) request and receive from any state or local authority, agency, department or division of the state or political subdivision such assistance, personnel, information, books, records, other documentation and cooperation as may be necessary to perform its duties;
(b) enter into cooperative agreements with other government offices to efficiently carry out its work and not duplicate resources;
(c) receive and act upon complaints or recommendations from the public or other persons or entities regarding any authority covered by this title;
(d) initiate formal investigations in response to complaints or appearances of non-compliance by an authority;
(e) issue subpoenas pertaining to investigations which such office is authorized to conduct under this title, for the purposes of effectuating the powers and duties of this title;
(f) publicly warn and censure authorities for non-compliance with this title, and to establish guidelines for such actions;
(g) recommend to the entity that appointed the officer or director suspension or dismissal of officers or directors, based on information that is, or is made, available to the public under law;
(h) report suspected criminal activities to the attorney general and other prosecutorial agencies;
(i) compel any authority which is deemed to be in non-compliance with this title and title one of this article or article nine of this chapter to submit to the authorities budget office a detailed explanation of such failure to comply; and
(j) commence a special proceeding in supreme court, when it does not receive from a state or local authority upon request information, books, records or other documentation necessary to perform its duties, seeking an order directing the production of the same.
3. The reports and non-proprietary information received by and prepared by the authorities budget office shall be made available to the public, to the extent practicable, through the internet.
Last modified: February 3, 2019