N.Y. R.R. Law § 300
It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state to encourage and bring about the rehabilitation, improvement, and continued operation by private enterprise of the facilities of any domestic railroad corporation which now or hereafter is a debtor in proceedings under the bankruptcy laws of the United States and which in the calendar year preceding the institution of such proceedings had passenger miles within the state of five hundred million or more, and to encourage and bring about the rehabilitation of such corporations in order to enable them, with private capital and under private management, to furnish safe, efficient, and adequate transportation service to the people of the state; and it is hereby further found and declared that the rehabilitation and continued operation of such corporations by private enterprise and enabling such bankruptcy proceedings to be terminated are matters of public concern; that it is necessary to create, with adequate safeguards, inducements and opportunities for the employment of private investment in such rehabilitation and continued operation; that a railroad redevelopment corporation qualifying hereunder serves a public purpose; that provision must be made for the granting of partial tax exemption to such corporations; that the commissioner of transportation and any other state agency empowered to act under section three hundred three are hereby declared to be the agencies and instrumentalities of the state to carry out the policy and purposes herein recited; and the necessity in the public interest for the provisions of this article is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.
N.Y. R.R. Law § 300