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S04718 Summary:

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S04718 Floor Votes:

S04718 Text:

 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                         4718--A
 
                               2011-2012 Regular Sessions
 
                    IN SENATE
 
                                     April 15, 2011
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by Sens. RITCHIE, SEWARD -- (at request of the Department of
          Agriculture and Markets) -- read twice and ordered printed,  and  when
          printed  to  be committed to the Committee on Agriculture -- committee
          discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
          to said committee
 

        AN ACT to amend the  agriculture  and  markets  law,  the  environmental
          conservation law and the soil and water conservation districts law, in
          relation  to  the  membership  of  county  agricultural  and  farmland
          protection boards, authorization to hold conservation  easements,  and
          funding agricultural nonpoint source abatement and control projects
 
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 1 of section 302 of the  agri-
     2  culture  and markets law, as amended by chapter 235 of the laws of 1995,
     3  is amended to read as follows:
     4    (a) A county legislative body may establish a county agricultural  and
     5  farmland  protection  board  which  shall  consist of eleven members, at
     6  least four of whom shall be active farmers. At least one member of  such

     7  board  shall  represent  agribusiness  and  one  member may represent an
     8  organization dedicated to agricultural land  preservation.    These  six
     9  members of the board shall reside within the county which the respective
    10  board  serves.  The  members  of the board shall also include the chair-
    11  person of the county soil and water  conservation  district's  board  of
    12  directors  or  an  employee  of  the  county soil and water conservation
    13  district designated by the chairperson, a member of the county  legisla-
    14  tive  body,  a  county  cooperative extension agent, the county planning
    15  director and the county director of  real  property  tax  services.  The
    16  chairperson shall be chosen by majority vote. Such board shall be estab-
    17  lished  in  the event no such board exists at the time of receipt by the
    18  county legislative body of a petition for the creation or review  of  an

    19  agricultural  district  pursuant  to section three hundred three of this
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD09681-03-1
        S. 4718--A                          2
 
     1  article, or at the time of receipt by the county of a notice  of  intent
     2  filing  pursuant  to  subdivision  four of section three hundred five of
     3  this article. The members of such board shall be appointed by the chair-
     4  person  of  the  county  legislative body, who shall solicit nominations
     5  from farm membership organizations except for  the  chairperson  of  the
     6  county  soil and water conservation district's board of directors or his

     7  or her designee, the county planning director and director of real prop-
     8  erty tax services, who shall serve ex officio. The members  shall  serve
     9  without  salary,  but  the county legislative body may entitle each such
    10  member to reimbursement for actual and necessary  expenses  incurred  in
    11  the performance of official duties.
    12    §  2.  Subdivision 3 of section 49-0303 of the environmental conserva-
    13  tion law, as amended by chapter 45 of the laws of 1997,  is  amended  to
    14  read as follows:
    15    3.  "Public  body"  means the state or a municipal corporation as that
    16  term is defined in section two of the general municipal law.  Such  term
    17  shall  further  include  the Palisades interstate park commission [and];
    18  the Central Pine Barrens joint planning and  policy  commission;  and  a

    19  soil  and water conservation district as that term is defined in section
    20  three of the soil and water conservation districts law.
    21    § 3. Section 9 of the soil and water  conservation  districts  law  is
    22  amended by adding a new subdivision 4-a to read as follows:
    23    (4-a)  To  acquire,  by  purchase, exchange, gift, bequest, devise, or
    24  otherwise, a conservation easement as defined in section 49-0303 of  the
    25  environmental  conservation  law;  to  hold,  maintain,  administer, and
    26  improve, in compliance with any such easement and title three of article
    27  forty-nine of the environmental conservation law, any conservation ease-
    28  ments acquired; to enforce any of the terms of a conservation  easement,
    29  either  as  a  holder  of  an  acquired  easement or under a third party

    30  enforcement right, as defined in section 49-0303  of  the  environmental
    31  conservation law, granted to the district in a conservation easement; to
    32  receive  any  income  from  the  holding,  maintenance,  administration,
    33  improvement or enforcement of conservation easements  as  authorized  in
    34  this  subdivision and to expend such income in carrying out the purposes
    35  and provisions of this chapter; and to extinguish any such  conservation
    36  easements  in  compliance  with such easement and title three of article
    37  forty-nine of the environmental conservation law, in furtherance of  the
    38  purposes and provisions of this chapter.
    39    §  4. Subdivision 5 of section 11-b of the soil and water conservation
    40  districts law, as amended by chapter 413 of the laws of 1996, is amended

    41  to read as follows:
    42    5. State assistance payments pursuant to this section shall be up to a
    43  maximum of seventy-five percent of the  eligible  costs,  as  determined
    44  pursuant  to  subdivision  four  of section 17-1409 of the environmental
    45  conservation law, for any  specified  project.  Such  maximum  shall  be
    46  increased  by a percentage equal to the percentage of the total eligible
    47  costs for such specified projects that are contributed by the  owner  or
    48  operator of agricultural land upon which such specified project is being
    49  conducted,  provided,  however, that in no event shall the total of such
    50  state assistance payments  exceed  [ninety]  eighty-seven  and  one-half
    51  percent of such eligible costs for any specified project.
    52    § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.