§ 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.