The Text

There shall annually be imposed and levied a tax which shall be sufficient to pay the interest and extinguish the principal of the canal debt mentioned in the third section of this article, as the same shall become due and payable, and the proceeds of such tax shall, in each fiscal year, be appropriated and set apart for the sinking fund constituted for the payment of the principal and the interest of the aforesaid debt. But the legislature may, in its discretion, impose for the fiscal year, beginning on the first day of October, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, a State tax on each dollar of the valuation of the property in this State which may by law then be subject to taxation, sufficient, with the accumulations of the sinking fund applicable thereto, to pay in full both the principal and interest of the canal debt before mentioned, and the proceeds of such tax shall be appropriated and set apart for the sinking fund constituted for the payment of the principal and the interest of said debt. In the event of sucli action by the legislature, then the legislature shall, under the law directing the assessment and levy of such tax, make such provision for the retirement of the canal debt as it shall deem equitable and just to the creditors of the State.