Bond issues.

Sinking fund.

Rate of interest.

Amendments to Constitution.

Shall

at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have
received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at
such election. On the final passage of such bill in either house
of the legislature, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes,
to be duly entered on the journals thereof, and shall be:
this bill pass, and ought the same to receive the sanction of the
people?" The legislature may at any time, after the approval of
such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted
in pursuance thereof, repeal the same; and may at any time, by
law, forbid the contracting of any further debt or liability under
such law; but the tax, if any, imposed by such act, in proportion
to the debt and liability which may have been contracted in
pursuance of such law, shall remain in force and be irrepealable,
and be annually collected, until the proceeds thereof shall have
made the provision hereinbefore specified to pay and discharge
the interest and principal of such debt and liability. The money
arising from any loan or stock creating such debt or liability
shall be applied to the work or object specified in the act authoriz
ing such debt or liability, or for the payment of such debt or
liability, and for no other purpose whatever. No such law shall
be submitted to be voted on, within three months after its passage
or at any general election when any other law, or any bill shall
be submitted to be voted for or against. The legislature may
provide for the issue of bonds of the state to run for a period not
exceeding fifty years in lieu of bonds heretofore authorized but
not issued and shall impose and provide for the collection of a
direct annual tax for the payment of the same as herein before
required. When any sinking fund created under this section
shall equal in amount the debt for which it was created, no further
direct tax shall be levied on account of said sinking fund and
the legislature shall reduce the tax to an amount equal to the
accruing interest on such debt. The legislature may from time
to time alter the rate of interest to be paid upon any state debt,
which has been or may be authorized pursuant to the provisions
of this section, or upon any part of such debt, provided, however,
that the rate of interest shall not be altered upon any part of
such debt or upon any bond or other evidence thereof, which has
been, or shall be created or issued before such alteration. In
case the legislature increase the rate of interest upon any such debt,

• Words "if any " new.

Amendments to Constitution.

or part thereof, it shall, if such debt be payable otherwise than in equal annual instalments, impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay and sufficient to pay the increased or altered interest on such debt as it falls due and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt within fifty years from the time of the contracting thereof, and shall appropriate annually to the sinking fund moneys in amount sufficient to pay such interest and pay and discharge the principal of such debt when it shall become due and payable.

8

preserve.

§ 7. The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, Forest constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. Nothing Highway contained in this section shall prevent the state from constructing a state highway from Saranac lake in Franklin county to Long lake in Hamilton county and thence to Old Forge in Herkimer county by way of Blue Mountain lake and Raquette lake.

9

use.

in.

reservoirs

The legislature may by general laws provide for the use Storage of not exceeding three per centum of such lands for the con- in. struction and maintenance of reservoirs for municipal water supply, for the canals of the state and to regulate the flow of streams. Such reservoirs shall be constructed, owned and controlled by the state, but such work shall not be undertaken until after the boundaries and high flow lines thereof shall have been accurately surveyed and fixed, and after public notice, hearing and determination that such lands are required for such public The expense of any such improvements shall be apportioned on the public and private property and municipalities benefited to the extent of the benefits received. Any such reservoir shall always be operated by the state and the legislature shall provide for a charge upon the property and municipalities benefited for a reasonable return to the state upon the value of the rights and property of the state used and the services of the state rendered, which shall be fixed for terms of not exceeding ten years and be readjustable at the end of any term. Unsanitary conditions shall not be created or continued by any such public works. A viola

7 Words "if such debt be payable otherwise than in equal annual instalments," new.

8 Following sentence new.

Word "But" omitted.

Canals not to be sold or otherwise dis

posed certain

canals cepted.

Disposi

tion of

funds.

ex

Amendments to Constitution.

tion of any of the provisions of this section may be restrained at the suit of the people or, with the consent of the supreme court in appellate division, on notice to the attorney-general at the suit of any citizen.

§ 8. The legislature shall not sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal, the of: Cayuga and Seneca canal, or the Black river canal; but they shall remain the property of the state and under its management forever. The prohibition of lease, sale or other disposition herein contained, shall not apply to the canal known as the Main and Hamburg street canal, situated in the city of Buffalo, and which extends easterly from the westerly line of Main street to the westerly line of Hamburg street, 10 nor to that portion of the existing Erie canal in the city of Utica between the westerly line of Schuyler street and the easterly line of Third street, provided that a flow of sufficient water from Schuyler street to Third street to feed that portion of the canal east of Third street be maintained. All funds that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal shall be applied to the improvement, superintendence or repair of the remaining portion of the canals.

State debts, how paid;

funda

§ 11. The legislature may appropriate out of any funds in sinking the treasury, moneys to pay the accruing interest and principal of any debt heretofore or hereafter created, or any part thereof and may, if such debt be payable otherwise than in annual instalments,11 set apart in each fiscal year, moneys in the state treasury as a sinking fund to pay the interest as it falls due and to pay and discharge the principal of any debt heretofore or hereafter created under section four of article seven of the constitution until the same shall be wholly paid, and the principal and income of such sinking fund shall be applied to the purpose for which said sinking fund is created and to no other purpose whatever; and, in the event such moneys so set apart in fiscal year be sufficient to provide such sinking fund, a direct annual tax for such year need not be imposed and collected, as required by the provisions of said section four of article seven, or of any law enacted in pursuance thereof. 12 The legislature shall annually as

10 Remainder of sentence new.

any

11 Words "if such debt be payable otherwise than in annual instalments,"

new.

12 Following sentence new.

Amendments to Constitution.

the same shall fall due provide by direct tax, appropriation or both for the payment of the interest upon and instalments of principal of all debts created on behalf of the state, payable in annual instalments, pursuant to section four of article seven, or of any law enacted in pursuance thereof.