§ 595. Reporting to assessors. 1. No less than sixty days before the
taxable status date, the assessor shall cause to be sent, by registered
or certified mail, a notice to each known producer, setting forth the
provisions of this subdivision and stating that producers are required
to report annual production pursuant to this title and that a true and
accurate copy of the production report for the production year required
to be filed with the department of environmental conservation must be
provided to the assessor forty-five days before the tentative roll date.
Such notice shall also contain the tentative roll date on or before
which the production data is due, and the name and complete address of
the responsible office, person or agency to whom such production report
data shall be provided. If such notice is provided but the producer does
not so comply, this title shall not be applicable to the property of
that producer.
2. Each oil and/or gas producer shall report to each appropriate
assessor the total amount of oil and gas produced in the production year
from each oil and gas well and the physical structures and buildings
within the economic unit or units that the producer considers to be part
of the economic unit or units for assessment under this title. Physical
structures and buildings designated by the producer and accepted by the
assessor to be a part of the economic unit shall be assessed as part of
the economic unit pursuant to this title and not separately under other
provisions of this chapter.
3. If requested by the assessor, each producer shall submit to the
assessor, maps or other information reasonably indicating the location
of gas and oil wells, pipeline and other equipment and fixtures. In lieu
of submitting the foregoing information a producer may refer and direct
the assessor to any local government authority, including a town or
village municipality, where such or similar information has already been
filed or supplied to such authorities.
4. The local government official who receives notice from the
producer, pursuant to subdivision thirteen of section 23-0305 of the
environmental conservation law, of the issuance of drilling permits and
location of the drilling site, shall promptly provide a copy of each
such notice received to the assessor.
5. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph f of subdivision
eight of section 23-0305 of the environmental conservation law, the
commissioner of the department of environmental conservation shall, on
or before April first of each year or as soon thereafter as possible,
provide to each county director of real property tax services a copy of
each production report received by the department relating to production
in that county in the applicable production year, or a compilation of
such information in a form usable for purposes of this title. The
commissioner shall also provide to each county director of real property
tax services, on or before April first of each year or as soon as
possible thereafter a list identifying and containing all oil and gas
drilling well permits, if any, issued by the department during the
immediate preceding calendar year for each affected county. Information
provided by the commissioner pursuant to this subdivision shall not be
subject to the provisions of article six of the public officers law (the
freedom of information law), and no person shall disclose or otherwise
make known any such information submitted by the department, except in
an administrative or judicial proceeding to review a unit of production
value or the assessment of an oil or gas economic unit only after
providing twenty days written notice to the producer whose information
is the subject of the proposed disclosure affording such producer with
opportunity to submit written grounds for any objections to such
disclosure.
(b) The county director of real property tax services shall promptly
provide to each assessor, production data relating to oil and gas
economic units within that assessor's assessing unit.
6. Each gas producer shall notify the appropriate assessor in writing
of the conversion or alteration of any producing well within an economic
unit to a storage well or of the plugging and abandonment of a well.