The Text

The Legislature shall not sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal, the Cayuga and Seneca canal, the Black River canal or any part of said canals, or any lands, slips, docks, or other structures, basins, harbors, or terminals connected with and appurtenant to said canals hereafter provided, acquired or constructed by the state to aid commerce upon said canals, or upon tide waters, lakes, or canalized waterways, including all that portion of the Erie canal in the city of Buffalo from the guard lock therein to and including Commercial Slip and the slips loading from the canal to the Erie basin, but they shall remain the property of the state and under its management forever. The word “canal,” as used herein, includes slips, harbors and the canals as constructed and improve under and pursuant to chapter one hundred and forty-seven of the laws of nineteen hundred and three, as heretofore amended, and under and pursuant to chapter three hundred and ninety-one of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine. No part of any of the said canals nor of said lands, slips, docks, or other structures, basins, harbors or terminals, shall be abandoned, until the same shall have ceased to be a portion thereof and shall have been declared abandoned by an act of the legislature, based upon a certificate of the canal board, that it is no longer a portion thereof. All funds that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal not above mentioned, or of any part of the canals, lands, slips, docks, or other structures, basins, harbors or terminals, which shall have ceased to be a portion thereof and declared abandoned, as above provided, shall be applied to the improvement, superintendence or repair of the remaining canals.