§ 102. Definitions. As used in this chapter, 1. "Agency" means any department, board, bureau, commission, division, office, council, committee or officer of the state, or a public benefit corporation or public authority at least one of whose members is appointed by the governor, authorized by law to make rules or to make final decisions in adjudicatory proceedings but shall not include the governor, agencies in the legislative and judicial branches, agencies created by interstate compact or international agreement, the division of military and naval affairs to the extent it exercises its responsibility for military and naval affairs, the division of state police, the identification and intelligence unit of the division of criminal justice services, the state insurance fund, the unemployment insurance appeal board, and except for purposes of subdivision one of section two hundred two-d of this chapter, the workers' compensation board and except for purposes of article two of this chapter, the department of corrections and community supervision. 2. (a) "Rule" means (i) the whole or part of each agency statement, regulation or code of general applicability that implements or applies law, or prescribes a fee charged by or paid to any agency or the procedure or practice requirements of any agency, including the amendment, suspension or repeal thereof and (ii) the amendment, suspension, repeal, approval, or prescription for the future of rates, wages, security authorizations, corporate or financial structures or reorganization thereof, prices, facilities, appliances, services or allowances therefor or of valuations, costs or accounting, or practices bearing on any of the foregoing whether of general or particular applicability.

(b) Not included within paragraph (a) of this subdivision are:

(i) rules concerning the internal management of the agency which do not directly and significantly affect the rights of or procedures or practices available to the public;

(ii) rules relating to the use of public works, including streets and highways, when the substance of such rules is indicated to the public by means of signs or signals;

(iii) rulings issued under section two hundred four or two hundred five of this chapter;

(iv) forms and instructions, interpretive statements and statements of general policy which in themselves have no legal effect but are merely explanatory;

(v) rules promulgated to implement agreements pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law;

(vi) rates of interest prescribed by the superintendent of financial services pursuant to section fourteen-a of the banking law;

(vii) rules relating to the approval or disapproval of subscriber rates contained in an application to the public service commission, after public hearing and approval by the applicable municipality for a certificate of confirmation or an amendment to a franchise agreement;

(viii) state equalization rates, class ratios, special equalization rates and special equalization ratios established pursuant to the real property tax law;

(ix) rates subject to prior approval by the superintendent of financial services or to section two thousand three hundred forty-four of the insurance law;

(x) any regulation promulgating an interim price and any final marketing order made by the commissioner of agriculture and markets pursuant to section two hundred fifty-eight-m of the agriculture and markets law;

(xi) any fee which is:

(1) set by statute;

(2) less than one hundred dollars;

(3) one hundred dollars or more and can reasonably be expected to result in an annual aggregate collection of not more than one thousand dollars;

(4) established through negotiation, written agreement or competitive bidding, including, but not limited to, contracts, leases, charges, permits for space use, prices, royalties or commissions; or

(5) a charge or assessment levied by an agency upon another agency or by an agency upon another unit of state government.

(xii) changes in a schedule filed by a telephone corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the public service commission;

(xiii) rules relating to requests for authority by a telephone corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the public service commission under sections ninety-nine, one hundred and one hundred one of the public service law and by a public utility subject to the jurisdiction of the public service commission under section one hundred seven of the public service law;

(xiv) any regulation comprised solely of one or more additions to the list of nonprescription drugs reimbursable under the medicaid program pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision four of section three hundred sixty-five-a of the social services law. 3. "Adjudicatory proceeding" means any activity which is not a rule making proceeding or an employee disciplinary action before an agency, except an administrative tribunal created by statute to hear or determine allegations of traffic infractions which may also be heard in a court of appropriate jurisdiction, in which a determination of the legal rights, duties or privileges of named parties thereto is required by law to be made only on a record and after an opportunity for a hearing. 4. "License" includes the whole or part of any agency permit, certificate, approval, registration, charter, or similar form of permission required by law. 5. "Licensing" includes any agency activity respecting the grant, denial, renewal, revocation, suspension, annulment, withdrawal, recall, cancellation or amendment of a license. 6. "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or public or private organization of any character other than an agency engaged in the particular rule making, declaratory ruling, or adjudication. 7. "Party" means any person or agency named or admitted as a party or properly seeking and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party; but nothing herein shall be construed to prevent an agency from admitting any person or agency as a party for limited purposes. 8. "Small business" means any business which is resident in this state, independently owned and operated, and employs one hundred or less individuals. 9. "Substantial revision" means any addition, deletion or other change in the text of a rule proposed for adoption, which materially alters its purpose, meaning or effect, but shall not include any change which merely defines or clarifies such text and does not materially alter its purpose, meaning or effect. To determine if the revised text of a proposed rule contains a substantial revision, the revised text shall be compared to the text of the rule for which a notice of proposed rule making was published in the state register; provided, however, if a notice of revised rule making was previously published in the state register, the revised text shall be compared to the revised text for which the most recent notice of revised rule making was published. 10. "Rural area" means those portions of the state so defined by subdivision seven of section four hundred eighty-one of the executive law. 11. "Consensus rule" means a rule proposed by an agency for adoption on an expedited basis pursuant to the expectation that no person is likely to object to its adoption because it merely (a) repeals regulatory provisions which are no longer applicable to any person, (b) implements or conforms to non-discretionary statutory provisions, or (c) makes technical changes or is otherwise non-controversial. 13. "Data" means written information or material, including, but not limited to, statistics or measurements used as the basis for reasoning, calculations or conclusions in a study. 14. "Guidance document" means any guideline, memorandum or similar document prepared by an agency that provides general information or guidance to assist regulated parties in complying with any statute, rule or other legal requirement, but shall not include documents that concern only the internal management of the agency or declaratory rulings issued pursuant to section two hundred four of this chapter.