Public Authorities in the United States

The terms "Authority" and "Public Authority" have become bywords in legislative planning for long-range development of State institutional facilities. 1 From an extensive 1956 study by a New York legislative commission, called upon to investigate multi-billion dollar Authority operations in that State, came this declaration:2The public authority is one of the most significant of developments in modern governmental administration.It has captured the imagination of the public and has gained substantial support in the investing community.Over the last fifty years the public authority device has grown into a significant element of government....So great has been its growth that the public authority requires recognition as a significant vehicle for public administration.An earlier survey by the Council of State Governments, made at the request of the Governors Conference of 1952, found that since World War II the States increasingly have adopted legisition setting up Public Authorities to finance and construct a variety of governmental services.To avoid becoming enmeshed in a complicated governmental proliferation which is roughly bounded on one side by purely political subdivisions and by whollyowned government or public corporations 4 on the other, it is necessary to adopt a working description of a standard Public Authority.Therefore, in broad terms for the moment, a Public Authority will be deemed to be a limited legislative agency or instrumentality 5 of corporate form intended to accomplish specific purposes involving long-range financing of certain public facilities without legally or directly impinging upon the credit of the State.