§ 97-m. Climate change adaptation fund. 1. There is hereby established
in the custody of the comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and
finance a special revenue fund to be known as the "climate change
adaptation fund" for the purpose of receiving moneys through cost
recovery demands and issuing funds for qualifying expenditures pursuant
to the climate change adaptation cost recovery program established in
article seventy-six of the environmental conservation law.

2. No monies shall be expended from the fund for any purpose except:

a. following appropriation by the legislature, qualifying expenditures
pursuant to the program, including their operation and maintenance, as
well as reasonable costs and expenses incurred by state entities for
administering and directly supporting the implementation of climate
change adaptive infrastructure projects under the program; provided,
however, that no more than one percent of the receipts of the fund may
be used for such administrative or implementation costs; and

b. Following appropriation or authorization by the legislature,
transfer to other funds for investments, payments or benefits directly
related to such climate change adaptive infrastructure projects, as
appropriate.

3. Any appropriation for qualifying expenditures shall indicate by
project type the amount of qualifying expenditures to be made available,
however, notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary,
amounts associated with various project types shall be fully
interchangeable within the overall appropriation.

4. Revenues in the fund shall be kept separate and shall not be
commingled with any other moneys in the custody of the comptroller or
the commissioner of taxation and finance. All deposits of such revenues
shall, if required by the comptroller, be secured by obligations of the
United States or of the state having a market value equal at all times
to the amount of such deposits and all banks and trust companies are
authorized to give security for such deposits. Any such revenues in such
fund may, upon the discretion of the comptroller, be invested in
obligations in which the comptroller is authorized to invest pursuant to
section ninety-eight-a of this article.

5. All payments of moneys from the fund shall be made on the audit and
warrant of the comptroller.