2023 New York Laws › PBA - Public Authorities › Article 8 - Miscellaneous Authorities › Title 34 - Syracuse Regional Airport Authority › 2799-BBB - Statement of Legislative Findings and Purpose.

§  2799-bbb.  Statement  of  legislative  findings  and  purpose.  The
legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:
1. The economic well-being of the state and the general welfare of its
people  require  adequate,  safe,  secure  and  efficient  aviation  and
transportation facilities at a reasonable cost to the people.
2.  The  strengthening  and  improvement  of  aviation  facilities and
related services for the central part of the state is a matter of  vital
importance  not only to the residents of central New York but to all the
state's residents and is therefore a matter of state concern.
3. In order to ensure a healthy economy for such area and  to  promote
the  general  welfare  of  its  residents, it is necessary to expand and
improve the existing aviation facilities and services in the central New
York region in such a manner  as  to  stimulate  and  promote  increased
local,  state,  national  and  international  air  travel  and  commerce
throughout central New York.
4. The health, welfare, safety and security of the  state's  residents
and  of  those  passengers using air transportation requires coordinated
operation of aviation facilities and services in the  central  New  York
region by a public benefit airport authority.
5. The purposes of such authority shall be:
(a) to stimulate and promote economic development, trade and tourism;
(b)  to  acquire,  construct,  reconstruct,  continue, develop, equip,
expand, improve,  maintain,  finance  and  operate  aviation  and  other
related facilities and services within central New York;
(c)   to   promote   safe,   secure,   efficient  and  economical  air
transportation by preserving and enhancing airport capacity;
(d) to form an integral part of a safe and effective nationwide system
of airports to meet the present and future needs  of  civil  aeronautics
and  national  defense  and  to  assure  inclusion  of  the  authority's
facilities  in  state,  national  and  international  programs  for  air
transportation  and  for  airport  or airway capital improvement, all in
accordance with the provisions of this title; and
(e) to ensure that aviation facilities  authorized  pursuant  to  this
title  shall  provide  for the protection and enhancement of the natural
resources and the quality of  the  environment  of  the  state  and  the
central New York area.
6.  Such  purposes are in all respects public purposes for the benefit
of the people of the state of New York and for which public funds may be
expended and both the city of Syracuse and the authority in carrying out
their respective powers and duties under this title shall be  deemed  to
be  acting  in  a  governmental capacity. The acquisition, construction,
reconstruction,   development,   expansion,   improvement,    equipping,
operation  and  maintenance of any project financed or undertaken by the
authority or the city shall be  deemed  to  be  the  performance  of  an
essential  governmental  function by the authority or the city acting in
its governmental capacity,  whether  such  project  shall  be  owned  or
operated by the authority or by any person or public corporation.
7.  It  is  hereby found and declared that it has been and remains the
policy of the  state  of  New  York  to  promote  equal  opportunity  in
employment  for  all persons, without discrimination on account of race,
creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual preference,  age,  disability
or  marital  status,  to  promote  equality  of economic opportunity for
minority group members and women,  and  business  enterprises  owned  by
them,   and  to  eradicate  the  effects  of  private  and  governmental
discrimination which has erected and continues to maintain barriers that
unreasonably  impair  access  by  minority  and   women-owned   business
enterprises   to  state  contract  opportunities.  For  the  purpose  of
furthering the state's compelling interest in eradicating the effects of

racial and sexual discrimination, therefore, it is necessary and  proper
that article fifteen-a of the executive law, concerning participation by
minority group members and women and business enterprises owned by them,
shall apply to the Syracuse regional airport authority.