Section 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 New York
  state thruway authority, 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 New York state thruway authority and shall  be
  expended  by  such  authority or subsidiary corporation thereof only for
  the maintenance, construction, reconstruction, development or  promotion
  of  the  canal  system;  provided,  however,  that in the initial years,
  expenditures of moneys of the fund for the development and/or  promotion
  of  the  canal  system  shall be accorded a priority by the authority or
  subsidiary corporation thereof. 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.