Enacts the "public benefits for professional facilities act"; defines terms; provides that any state or local authority that grants any benefit, for the purpose of construction, reconstruction, repair or rehabilitation of a professional sports facility, shall, as a condition of such benefit, require that at least seven percent of all tickets for each event be sold at prices affordable to residents of the host community.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2306
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 24, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities
and Commissions
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to enacting the
"public benefits for professional facilities act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "public benefits for professional facilities act".
3 § 2. Article 9 of the public authorities law is amended by adding a
4 new title 3-B to read as follows:
5 TITLE 3-B
6 PUBLIC BENEFITS FOR PROFESSIONAL FACILITIES
7 Section 2860. Professional facilities.
8 § 2860. Professional facilities. 1. No later than ninety days after
9 the effective date of this subdivision, the Empire state development
10 corporation shall publish on its website and provide to the legislature
11 an accounting of all benefits that any state or local authority has
12 granted or obligated itself to grant for the purpose of construction,
13 reconstruction, repair or rehabilitation of a professional sports facil-
14 ity. Such accounting shall include all such benefits granted or obli-
15 gated to be granted at any time on or after January first, two thousand
16 eleven. Thereafter, the Empire state development corporation shall
17 publish on its website and provide to the legislature an update of such
18 accounting by February fifteenth of each year, covering the period
19 ending December thirty-first of the preceding year. Any state or local
20 authority that has granted or obligated itself to grant any such benefit
21 shall report the terms of such benefit to the Empire state development
22 corporation no later than the earlier of the date the benefit is granted
23 or the date the benefit is obligated to be granted.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02178-01-9
S. 2306 2
1 2. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have
2 the following meanings:
3 (a) "Benefit" shall mean any direct or indirect grant of funds, tax
4 reductions, tax preferences, subsidies, payments in lieu of any tax or
5 tax obligation, or any other form of public support.
6 (b) "Affordable" shall mean within the economic ability of persons
7 whose income is at or below sixty percent of the area median income for
8 a four-person household to purchase tickets without economic hardship.
9 (c) "Affordable ticket agreement" shall mean a binding agreement among
10 the state or local authority granting a benefit, the recipient of such
11 benefit, and any other party necessary to give such agreement effect,
12 the terms of which are publicly disclosed not less than thirty days
13 before the state or local authority grants any benefit or undertakes any
14 obligation to grant such benefit. Such agreement shall include
15 provisions to prevent resale of tickets subject to the agreement at
16 prices above face value.
17 3. Any state or local authority that grants any benefit, for the
18 purpose of construction, reconstruction, repair or rehabilitation of a
19 professional sports facility, shall, as a condition of such benefit,
20 require that at least seven percent of all tickets for each event be
21 subject to an affordable ticket agreement. Furthermore, such benefit
22 shall be conditioned upon a facility policy that limits ticket price
23 increases to no more than two percent annually for the next ten years,
24 if at any time in the last three years season or individual tickets have
25 been offered for sale with cumulative price increases of more than thir-
26 ty percent.
27 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
