The Text

The Legislature shall not sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal or the Cayuga and Seneca canal ; but they shall remain the property of the State, and under its management forever. Hereafter the expenditures for collections, superintendence, ordinary and extraordinary repairs on the canals named in this section, shall not exceed, in any year, their gross receipts for the previous year. All funds that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal, shall be applied in payment of the debt for which the canal revenues are pledged.