Labor & Employment Law

A reader asks what is meant when an item refers to a public employer as a ?public corporation??

Typically, when the State is the employer, the term ?State? is used. When discussing the personnel of "a political subdivision of the State,? the entity involved is a county, town, village, school district or a similar ?public employers.? In some instances, the entity is referred to as a ?public corporation.?

In this context, the term "public corporation" includes a municipal corporation, a district corporation, or a public benefit corporation. Further, the term "municipal corporation" encompasses a county, a city, a town, a village or a school district or BOCES. A "district corporation" includes any territorial division of the state, other than a municipal corporation established by law, that possesses the power to contract indebtedness and levy taxes or benefit assessments on real estate or to require the levy of such taxes or assessments.

In addition, the entity might be a "public benefit corporation" i.e., a corporation organized "to construct or operate a public improvement wholly or partly within the state, the profits from which inure to the benefit of this or other states, or to the people thereof" or an "education corporation" as defined in Education Law Section 216-a.1.

In other cases, the enabling statute itself may establish the public entity as a ?corporation.? For example, Section 201 of the Education Law establishes the University of the State of New York, not to be confused with the State University of New York, as a corporation. This entity was initially designated a corporation when it was created in 1784 under the name of "The Regents of the University of the State of New York."

As to the State University of New York, Education Law Section 352 ?created in the state education department and within the University of the state of New York as established under the board of regents a corporation to be known as the state university of New York which shall be responsible for the planning, supervision and administration of facilities and programs in accordance with the plan proposed by the state university trustees as approved by the regents pursuant to section two hundred thirty-seven of this chapter.?

A public authority is usually a ?public corporation.? For example, §152 of the Public Authorities Law creates a board, to be known as the "Jones Beach State Parkway Authority," and states that such board shall be ?a body corporate and politic constituting a public benefit corporation.?

The New York ? New Jersey Port Authority is another type of public authority. Established in 1921, the Port Authority was created pursuant Article 1, Section 10.3 of the Constitution of the United States and permits Congress to approve compacts between states to operate a bi-state region to their mutual advantage.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on October 31, 2008 (boomark / email).