§ 18-a. Costs and expenses of the commission and department and the
assessment of such costs and expenses. 1. All costs and expenses of the
department and commission shall be paid pursuant to appropriation on the
certification of the chairman of the department and upon the audit and
warrant of the comptroller. The state treasury shall be reimbursed
therefore by payments to be made thereto from all moneys collected
pursuant to this chapter. The total of such costs and expenses shall be
borne by the public utility companies (including for the purposes of
this section municipalities other than municipalities as defined in
section eighty-nine-l of this chapter), corporations (including the
power authority of the state of New York), and persons subject to the
commission's regulation, to be assessed in the manner provided in
subdivisions two, three and four of this section and section two hundred
seventeen of this chapter.

1-a. All costs and expenses of the department related to the
department's responsibilities under section three-b of this chapter
shall be paid pursuant to appropriation on the certification of the
chairman of the department and upon the audit and warrant of the
comptroller. For the state fiscal year beginning on April first, two
thousand fourteen and each state fiscal year thereafter, payments are to
be made from all moneys collected from the Long Island power authority
pursuant to this section. The total of such costs and expenses shall be
assessed on such authority in the manner provided in subdivisions two,
three and four of this section.

2. (a) The chairman of the department shall estimate prior to the
start of each state fiscal year the total costs and expenses, including
the compensation and expenses of the commission and the department,
their officers, agents and employees, and including the cost of
retirement contributions, social security, health and dental insurance,
survivor's benefits, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and
other fringe benefits required to be paid by the state for the personnel
of the commission and the department, and including all other items of
maintenance and operation expenses, and all other direct and indirect
costs. Based on such estimates, the chairman shall determine the amount
to be paid by each assessed public utility company and the Long Island
power authority and a bill shall be rendered to each such public utility
company and authority.

(b) The bill for each public utility company and the Long Island power
authority shall be rendered on or before February first preceding each
fiscal year, and shall be for the amount equal to the product of the
aforesaid estimated costs and expenses of conducting the department's
and commission's total operations during the fiscal year for which
billing is being made multiplied by the proportion which compares:

(1) the gross operating revenues, over and above five hundred thousand
dollars, for that utility company or the authority derived from
intrastate utility operations in the last preceding calendar year, or
other twelve month period as determined by the chairman, to:

(2) the total of the gross operating revenues, derived from intrastate
utility operations for all utility companies and the authority in the
state which revenues are included under subparagraph one of this
paragraph.

For the purposes of calculating the commodity cost component of its
gross operating revenue, where the utility delivers to end-use customers
electricity and/or natural gas commodities that are sold to such
customers by a third party, such utility shall include in its revenues
an estimate of the sales revenue for the electric and/or natural gas
commodities that it delivers, including all such commodities sold to
end-use customers by third parties, in such manner as to assure that all
end-use delivery customers, regardless of the entity from which they
purchase their electric and/or natural gas commodities, bear a fair and
proportionate share of the assessment imposed herein, as the commission
may determine.

(c) The minimum assessment for any utility company, as well as the
Long Island power authority, whose gross revenues from intrastate
utility operations are in excess of five hundred thousand dollars in the
preceding calendar year shall be two hundred dollars.

(d) The amount of such bill for fiscal years beginning on or after
April first, nineteen hundred eighty-three so rendered shall be paid by
such public utility company and such authority to the department on or
before April first; provided, however, that any such utility company or
such authority may elect to make partial payments for such costs and
expenses on March tenth of the preceding fiscal year and on September
tenth of such fiscal year. Each such partial payment shall be a sum
equal to fifty percentum of the estimate of costs and expenses to be
assessed against such utility company or authority under the provisions
of this subdivision and shall not be less than two hundred dollars.

(e) During the course of any state fiscal year, the chairman may
increase or decrease the estimate of costs and expenses. In such case,
revised bills shall be sent to each public utility company and such
authority, and such increase or decrease shall be equally apportioned
against the remaining payments for such fiscal year.

(f) On or before October tenth of each year, the chairman shall
compute the actual costs and expenses of the department and the
commission and adjustments or other corrections as needed for the
preceding state fiscal year and, after deducting the amounts recovered
pursuant to subdivisions three and four of this section, shall, on or
before October twentieth, send to each public utility company and/or the
authority affected thereby a statement setting forth the amount due and
payable by, or the amount standing to the credit of, such public utility
company and/or the authority. Any amount owing by any public utility
company and/or the authority shall be paid not later than thirty days
following the date such statement is received. Any such amount standing
to the credit of any public utility company shall be refunded by the
commission or, at the option of such utility company, shall be applied
as a credit against any succeeding payment due.

(g) The total amount which may be charged to any public utility
company and the Long Island power authority under authority of this
subdivision for any state fiscal year shall not exceed one per centum of
such public utility company's or authority's gross operating revenues
derived from intrastate utility operations in the last preceding
calendar year, or other twelve month period as determined by the
chairman; provided, however, that no corporation or person that is
subject to the jurisdiction of the commission only with respect to
safety, or the power authority of the state of New York, shall be
subject to the general assessment provided for under this subdivision.

Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section, for
telephone corporations as defined in subdivision seventeen of section
two of this article, the total amount which may be charged such
corporations for department expenses under the authority of subdivision
one of this section for any state fiscal year shall not exceed one-third
of one percentum of such corporation's gross operating revenue, over and
above five hundred thousand dollars, derived from intrastate utility
operations in the last preceding calendar year, or other twelve month
period as determined by the chairman.

(h) On-bill recovery charges billed pursuant to section sixty-six-m of
this chapter shall be excluded from any determination of an entity's
gross operating revenues derived from intrastate utility operations for
purposes of this section.

3. In the case of corporations or persons subject to the jurisdiction
of the commission only with respect to safety, the chairman of the
department shall ascertain from time to time, but not less than once in
each fiscal year, all direct and indirect costs of investigating (a) the
safety of the pipelines conveying gas at pressures in excess of one
hundred twenty-five pounds per square inch gauge or conveying liquid
petroleum products of such corporations or persons and (b) the safety of
any gas plant of corporations manufacturing pipeline quality gas and
subject to the safety jurisdiction of the commission by virtue of the
proviso to exception (b) of subdivision eleven of section two of this
chapter. The chairman shall for each investigation assess such costs
against such corporations or persons whose pipelines or plants have been
investigated. Bills for such an investigation may be rendered from time
to time but not less than once in each fiscal year, and the amount of
such bills shall be paid by the appropriate corporation or person to the
department within thirty days from the date of rendition. The total
amount which may be charged to any corporation or person for any state
fiscal year as the cost of investigating the safety of pipelines shall
not exceed one hundred dollars times the sum of the products obtained by
multiplying the mileage (to the nearest tenth) of each section of any
such pipeline in the state in use at the end of the preceding calendar
year by its nominal diameter in feet (to the nearest tenth). The total
amount which may be charged to any pipeline quality gas manufacturing
company for any state fiscal year as the costs of investigating the
safety of the plant of such company shall not exceed one-third of one
per centum of the estimate of the average annual gross revenues from the
sales of manufactured gas over a three-year period of operation or
anticipated operation, as determined by the chairman, of such pipeline
quality gas manufacturing company.

4. In the case of the power authority of the state of New York, the
chairman of the department shall ascertain from time to time, but not
less than once in each fiscal year, all direct and indirect costs of
investigating requests by the power authority of the state of New York
to establish new, major utility transmission facilities as defined in
article seven of this chapter or to establish new, major steam electric
generating facilities as defined in article eight of this chapter. The
chairman shall for each such investigation assess such costs against the
power authority of the state of New York. Bills for such an
investigation may be rendered from time to time, but not less than once
in each fiscal year, and the amount of such bills shall be paid by the
power authority of the state of New York to the department within thirty
days from the date of rendition.

4-a. In the case of research, development and demonstration of new
energy technologies, the director of the budget may enter into
contracts, subject to the availability of appropriations, with the New
York state energy research and development authority for the costs of
such research, development and demonstration beyond such amounts as may
be available to the New York state energy research and development
authority for such purposes from bonds, grants or other sources. On or
before February first preceding each fiscal year, the chairman of the
authority shall estimate and transmit to the chairman of the department
of public service the total costs of authority research, development and
demonstration projected to be authorized by contracts with the director
of the budget for such fiscal year. The chairman of the department shall
apportion the costs of such research, development and demonstration in
accordance with the billing procedures of this section among gas
corporations and electric corporations as defined in section two of this
chapter. Such apportionment shall be excluded from the general
assessment provided for under subdivision two of this section. The total
amount which may be charged to any gas corporation and electric
corporation for any state fiscal year shall be .6 cents per one thousand
cubic feet for gas sold and .006 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity
sold by such corporations in their intrastate utility operations the
last preceding calendar year.

4-b. In the case of research, development and demonstration of new
energy technologies, the director of the budget may enter into
contracts, subject to the availability of appropriations, with the New
York state energy research and development authority for the costs of
such research, development and demonstration beyond such amounts as may
be available to the New York state energy research and development
authority for such purposes from bonds, grants or other sources,
including the power authority of the state of New York. Not later than
November first preceding each fiscal year, the energy research and
development authority and the power authority of the state of New York
shall agree as to a specific level of financial support to be provided
by the power authority of the state of New York for the energy research
and development authority's energy research development and
demonstration activities for such fiscal year. Such level of financial
support shall be incorporated in the annual budget request submitted by
the energy research and development authority and shall be reflected as
an offset to recommended appropriations for research, development and
demonstration of new energy technologies; provided, however, that the
sum of such recommended appropriations and such offset shall not exceed
twelve million dollars. One hundred per centum of the costs of such
research, development and demonstration not supplemented by bonds,
grants or other sources, not to exceed nine million six hundred thousand
dollars, shall be apportioned in accordance with the billing procedures
of this section, provided, that such costs shall be apportioned among
gas corporations and electric corporations as defined in section two of
this chapter and shall be excluded from the general assessment provided
for under subdivision two of this section. The total amount which may be
charged to any gas corporation and electric corporation for any state
fiscal year shall be .6 cents per one thousand cubic feet for gas sold
and .006 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity sold by such
corporations in their intrastate utility operations the last preceding
calendar year.

5. On demand made within thirty days of the rendition of any bill
pursuant to subdivision two, three or four of this section, the party so
charged shall be afforded an opportunity to be heard as to the amount
thereof. Any amounts of such bills not paid within thirty days from the
date of determination upon such hearings, or, if none shall be demanded,
on the date upon which such payment is due, shall bear interest at a
rate to be prescribed by regulation of the commission. Such rate shall
be not less than six percentum per annum nor more than the rate of
interest prescribed by the superintendent of financial services pursuant
to the provisions of section fourteen-a of the banking law in effect on
the day immediately preceeding the date on which the provisions of this
subdivision as amended become effective, but if the commission has not
set such rate, interest at six percentum per annum shall apply. Any
interest rate set by the commission shall become effective not less than
sixty days after such rate is promulgated.