§ 92-u. New York state canal system development fund. 1. Pursuant to
article fifteen of the state constitution, there is hereby established
in the joint custody of the state comptroller and the commissioner of
taxation and finance a fund to be known as the "New York state canal
system development fund".

2. Such fund shall consist of all revenues received from the operation
of the New York state canal system as defined in section three hundred
fifty-one of the public authorities law and section two of the canal
law, including payments on leases for use of canal lands, terminals and
terminal lands, tolls received for lock and lift bridge passage,
payments for hydroelectric easements and sales, for purchase of other
abandoned canal lands, payments for any permits and leases for use of
the water and lands of the system and payments for use of dry docks and
other moneys made available to the fund from any other source other than
a grant, loan or other inter-corporate transfer of funds of the power
authority of the state of New York, and any income earned by, or
incremental to, the fund due to investment thereof, or any repayment of
any moneys advanced by the fund.

3. Moneys in the New York state canal system development fund may be
invested by the comptroller pursuant to section ninety-eight-a of this
article, and any income received by the comptroller shall be added to
and become a part of, and shall be used for the purposes of such fund.

4. The moneys held in or credited to the fund shall be expended for
the purposes set forth in this section, and may not be interchanged or
commingled with any other account or fund but may be commingled with any
other fund or account for investment purposes.

5. Moneys of the fund, following appropriation by the legislature,
shall be available to the power authority of the state of New York and
shall be expended by such authority or the canal corporation only for
the maintenance, construction, reconstruction, development or promotion
of the canal system. In addition, moneys of the fund may be used for the
purposes of interpretive signage and promotion for appropriate
historically significant Erie canal lands and related sites. Moneys
shall be paid out of the fund by the state comptroller on certificates
issued by the director of the budget.