N.Y. Public Authorities Law § 538 – Tolls, rules and regulations

1. The authority shall have power to make rules and regulations for the preservation and use of the bridges and for the payment of tolls. Such rules and regulations shall be subject to the approval of the commissioner. Violations of such rules shall constitute an offense punishable by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars; provided, however, that violators of such rules relating to traffic or pedestrian use of a bridge or highway within the jurisdiction of the authority, shall be apprehended and prosecuted in the same manner as provided for the apprehension and prosecution of violators of the vehicle and traffic law who commit violations thereof upon the public highways. For the purpose of conferring jurisdiction upon courts and judicial officers generally, violations of those rules of the authority which are defined as offenses shall nevertheless be deemed misdemeanors for the sole purpose of making applicable all procedural provisions of law relating to misdemeanors. The rates of tolls shall be determined by the authority subject to the approval of the commissioner, and to the provisions and limitations of any agreement with the bondholders or noteholders. Nothing herein shall give the commissioner any power or authority to require any act or thing which will constitute a breach of any agreement with the bondholders or noteholders.
2. The authority shall continue to maintain and collect tolls on the bridges and shall, subject to the terms of any agreement, now outstanding or hereafter made, with bondholders or note holders or with the commissioner, apply tolls and other revenues from the operation of the bridges to the following charges in the order named:
1. (a) For payment of the cost of maintenance and operation of the bridges;
2. (b) For payment of installments of principal and of interest maturing upon bonds of the authority, if any;
3. (c) For payments from time to time in such amounts as the authority shall deem necessary to be contributed to a city pursuant to subdivision ten-b of section five hundred twenty-eight of this chapter.
3. None of the bridges constructed prior to January first, nineteen hundred fifty-eight, shall be free from tolls until all of such bridges are free therefrom, subject to such agreements with bondholders and noteholders as may be made as hereinafter provided, and the rates of tolls on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Mid-Hudson bridge, the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge, the Bear Mountain bridge, the Rip Van Winkle bridge, and the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon bridge shall be uniform.