NYCL AGO 95-49.

• Case Date: October 06, 1995
• Court: New York

New York Attorney General Opinions 1995. AGO 95-49. October 6, 1995Informal Opinion No. 95-49Karen M. Gazda, Esq. Town Attorney No. 95-49 Town of Clifton Park One Town Hall Plaza Clifton Park, New York 12065COUNTY LAW ART 5-A; GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW § 450, et seq. ; TOWN LAW ART 12, 12-A; TRANSPORTATION CORPORATIONS LAW, ART 10, §§ 115(1) and (4), 116(1), 117, 118(1)(a), 119(4), 122(1); L 1960 CH 1067.Each sewage-works corporation must petition for a sewer rate that is directly related to the cost of operating and maintaining its own sewer system for its own users in its approved area of operation. There is no authority for the municipal approval of a combined sewer rate or increase for two sewage-works corporations, regardless of the revenue needs or circumstances of either corporation.Dear Ms. Gazda: You inquire whether a town board may approve a combined sewer-rate petition jointly submitted by two independent sewage-works corporations. You informed us that each corporation operates a distinctly separate sewer area within the town pursuant to Article 10 of the Transportation Corporations Law. Specifically, you ask whether each individual sewage-works corporation is required to submit a petition for a sewer rate relating to its service area (based upon that area's particular revenue requirements and operating expenditures), or whether two sewage-works corporations may seek a combined sewer rate (by joining their rate bases, rates of return, revenue requirements and user pools). Based upon information you have provided to this office, we understand that the joint petitioners in this instance are the Crescent Waste Treatment Corporation (Crescent Waste) and the Crescent Estate Sewerage Disposal Corporation (Crescent Estate). Since its incorporation on July 11, 1969, Crescent Waste has operated the sewer area serving the Foxwood Apartments Development in the Town of Clifton Park. Crescent Estate, incorporated on November 23, 1965, operates a separate sewer area which serves approximately 204 acres of property in the Town. Both entities are sewage-works corporations organized pursuant to Article 10 of the Transportation Corporations Law; their rates must therefore be set in accordance with the provisions of that Law. By enacting Article 10, the Legislature established in the Transportation Corporations Law an...