The Text

After paying the said expenses of collection, superintendence and repairs of the Canals, and the sums appropriated by the first and second sections of this article, there shall be appropriated and set apart in each fiscal year, out of the surplus revenues of the Canals, as a sinking fund, a sum sufficient to pay the interest as it falls due, and extinguish the principal within eighteen years of any loan made under this section, and if the said sinking fund shall not be sufficient to redeem any part of the principal at the stipulated times of payment, or to pay any part of the interest of such loans as stipulated, the means to satisfy any such deficiency shall be procured on the credit of the said sinking fund. After complying with the foregoing provisions, there shall be paid annually out of the said revenues into the Treasury of the State two hundred thousand dollars, to defray the necessary expenses of government. The remainder shall, in each fiscal year, be applied to meet appropriations for the enlargement and completion of the Canals mentioned in this section, until the said Canals shall be completed. In each fiscal year there after the remainder shall be disposed of in such manner as the Legislature may direct, but shall at no time be anticipated or pledged for more than one year in advance. The Legislature shall annually, during the next four years, appropriate to the enlargement of the Erie, the Oswego, the Cayuga and Seneca canals, and to the completion of the Black River and Genesee Valley canals, and for the enlargement of the locks of the Champlain canal, whenever, from dilapidation or decay it shall be necessary to rebuild them, a sum not exceeding two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The remainder of the revenues of the Canals for the current fiscal year in which such appropriation is made, shall be applied to meet such appropriation ; and if the same shall be deemed insufiicient, the Legislature shall at the same session provide for the deficiency by loan. The Legislature shall also borrow one million and five hundred thousand dollars to refund to the holders of the Canal revenue certificates issued under the provisions of chapter four hundred and eighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, the amount received into the Treasury thereon. But no interest to accrue after July first, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, shall be paid on such certificates. The provisions of section twelve of this article requiring every law for borrowing money to be submitted to the people, shall not apply to the loans authorized by this section. No part of the revenues of the Canals or of the funds borrowed under this section, shall be paid or applied upon or in consequence of any alleged contract made under chapter four hundred and eighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, except to pay for work done or materials furnished prior to the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. The rates of toll on persons and property transported on the Canals shall not be reduced below those for the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, except by the Canal Board, with the concurrence of the Legislature. All contracts for work or materials on any Canal shall be made with the person who shall offer to do or provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate security for their performance.
No extra compensation shall be made to any contractor, but if, from any unforeseen cause, the terms of any contract shall prove to be unjust and oppressive, the Canal Board may, upon the application of the contractor, cancel such contract.