Section 2777. Statement of legislative findings and purpose

The legislature
  hereby finds and declares as follows:
    1. The economic well-being of the state and the general welfare of its
  people  require  adequate,  safe,  secure  and  efficient  aviation  and
  transportation facilities at a reasonable cost to the people.
    2. The  strengthening  and  improvement  of  aviation  facilities  and
  related  services  is  a  matter  of  vital  importance  not only to the
  residents of the capital district but to all the state's  residents  and
  is, therefore, a matter of state concern.
    3.  In  order to insure a healthy economy for such area and to promote
  the general welfare of its residents, it  is  necessary  to  expand  and
  improve  the  existing aviation facilities and services in Albany county
  in such a manner as to stimulate and  promote  increased  local,  state,
  national  and  international air travel and commerce through the capital
  district.
    4. The health, welfare, safety and security of the  state's  residents
  and  of  those  passengers using air transportation requires coordinated
  operation of aviation facilities and services  in  Albany  county  by  a
  public benefit airport authority.
    5.  The  purposes  of  such  authority  shall be: (a) to promote safe,
  secure, efficient and economical air transportation  by  preserving  and
  enhancing  airport  capacity;  (b)  to  acquire, construct, reconstruct,
  continue, develop, equip, expand, improve, maintain, finance and operate
  aviation and other related facilities and services within Albany county;
  (c) to stimulate and promote economic development,  trade  and  tourism;
  (d)  to  form an integral part of a safe and effective nationwide system
  of airports to meet the present and future needs  of  civil  aeronautics
  and  national  defense  and  to  assure  inclusion  of  the  authority's
  facilities  in  state,  national  and  international  programs  for  air
  transportation  and  for  airport  or airway capital improvement, all in
  accordance with the provisions of this title; and  (e)  to  insure  that
  aviation  facilities authorized pursuant to this title shall provide for
  the protection and enhancement of the natural resources and the  quality
  of the environment of the state and the capital district area.
    6.  Such  purposes are in all respects public purposes for the benefit
  of the people of the state of New York and for which public funds may be
  expended and both the county and the authority  in  carrying  out  their
  respective  powers  and  duties  under  this title shall be deemed to be
  acting  in  a  governmental  capacity.  The  acquisition,  construction,
  reconstruction,    development,   expansion,   improvement,   equipping,
  operation and maintenance of any project financed or undertaken  by  the
  authority  or  the  county  shall  be deemed to be the performance of an
  essential governmental function by the authority or the county acting in
  its governmental capacity,  whether  such  project  shall  be  owned  or
  operated by the authority or by any person or public corporation.
    7.  It  is  hereby found and declared that it has been and remains the
  policy of the  state  of  New  York  to  promote  equal  opportunity  in
  employment  for  all persons, without discrimination on account of race,
  creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or  marital  status,
  to  promote  equality of economic opportunity for minority group members
  and women, and business enterprises owned by them, and to eradicate  the
  effects of private and governmental discrimination which has erected and
  continues  to  maintain  barriers  that  unreasonably  impair  access by
  minority  and  women-owned  business  enterprises  to   state   contract
  opportunities.
    Recent  reviews and analyses of contracting in New York, including the
  study by the division of minority and women's  business  development  of
  the  department  of economic development entitled "Opportunity Denied! A

  Study  of  Racial  and  Sexual  Discrimination  Related  to   Government
  Contracting  in  New  York  State,"  confirm  through direct evidence of
  racial and sexual discrimination in and by New York state sufficient  to
  justify  race  and sex conscious remedies. For the purpose of furthering
  the state's compelling interest in eradicating the effects of racial and
  sexual discrimination therefore, it is necessary and proper that article
  fifteen-A of the executive law,  concerning  participation  by  minority
  group  members  and  women and business enterprises owned by them, shall
  apply to the Albany county airport authority.