2023 New York Laws › TRA - Transportation › Article 5 - The Powers of the Commissioner in Respect to Common Carriers › 135 - Rail Safety Fee.

§ 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.
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.