A Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) is an independent corporation created by the State of New York for purposes of providing financing assistance and fiscal oversight of a fiscally-distressed city. Two MACs are explicitly designated under New York law.
Best known is the MAC for New York City, created in response to the city's fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s. The corporation was born of a recommendation made by a special panel composed of Simon H. Rifkind, Felix G. Rohatyn, Richard M. Shinn and Donald B. Smiley. The majority of appointees to the corporation’s board were made by the Governor, initially by New York Governor Hugh Carey. As part of the creation of MAC, the state passed legislation that converted the city’s sales and stock transfer taxes into state taxes. In 2008, having sold almost $10 billion in bonds to keep the city solvent through its worst fiscal crisis, MAC settled its final accounts and voted itself out of existence.
The other MAC was created on July 19, 1995 for the City of Troy.