Sec. 975.6. Reports of public transportation systems, corporations or individuals

In order to receive funds under the STOA Program, any participating public transportation system shall submit applications and reports in the form and at the time prescribed as follows:

(a) Applications must be submitted each quarter using forms to be supplied by the Department. Such applications shall be filed between the second and seventeenth day of the first month of each quarter, with the quarters tracking the State's Fiscal Year.

(b) All systems must file an annual report. Those systems that provided more than one million vehicle, car or nautical miles in local revenue service or carried more than one million revenue passengers during the preceding state fiscal year must file the report specified by the commissioner. For those systems receiving federal funds, the reports filed with the cognizant federal agency may be submitted (with the permission of the commissioner under such terms as the commissioner may prescribe). In the case of such systems not required to file either of the two above-identified reports, such systems must file an annual report using a form to be provided by the Department.

All operators holding authority from the Commissioner of Transportation shall also file the report required by Part 741 of this Title. A11 operators holding authority from any city pursuant to section 80 of the Transportation Law shall also file a copy of any annual report required by such city.

(c) Filing Deadlines: The required annual financial and service data reports, shall be submitted to the New York State Department of Transportation Transit Division within one hundred twenty (120) days of the completion of the operator's fiscal year. These reports must be signed by the Chief Executive Officer. All authorized operators' reports shall be submitted on or before March 31st of each year.

Failure to file required annual reports noted in (b) above within the specified period from the end of the operator's fiscal year shall result in the operator's next quarterly STOA payment otherwise due being withheld pending receipt of the report. In the event that the required annual report is still outstanding by the succeeding quarter, the funds withheld from the prior quarter will then be returned to the general account for redistribution to all other eligible program participants. Besides withholding STOA for failure to file timely annual reports, the Commissioner may also withhold future State operating assistance payments from public transportation systems or private operators that do not provide such operational, financial, performance data, or such other information as may be required and deemed necessary by the Commissioner.

(d) Section 15 data. When a public or private bus operator receives State operating assistance and that bus operator provides service to or within an urbanized area of over 200,000 population, such operator shall file with the cognizant Federal agency such applications and/or reports (such as Section 15 data reports) as would serve to obtain and/or increase the Federal assistance apportioned to such area. Such applications or agents will cover fiscal years starting on or after July 1, 1989. Transit operators must file such applications or reports even if a transit operator is not receiving Federal aid from an urbanized area's apportionment. The local Metropolitan Transportation Organization (MPO) transit planning process is the proper forum to determine the allocation of Federal funds to individual transit operations.

(e) The Commissioner may grant exemptions to transit systems serving an urbanized area of over 200,000 population from having to file these required applications or reports. Any request for an exemption must be filed by such affected transit systems directly with the Commissioner. Exemptions to filing these applications or reports will be granted by the Commissioner only in those cases where extraordinary circumstances, such as financial hardship, warrant exemption treatment.

(f) Corporation or individuals: Any transportation system contracting with a corporation, firm or individual for the provision of mass transportation services, pursuant to section 18-b of the Transportation Law and section 119-r of the General Municipal Law, shall provide within that contract such requirements as it deems necessary to obtain the information required by this section.