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The Assembly returned the concurrent resolution (No. 1714, Int. No. 1151) entitled as follows:

Concurrent resolution of the Senate and Assembly proposing an amendment to section eighteen of article three of the constitution, relating to private and local bills.

Section 1. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That section eighteen of article three of the constitution be amended to read as follows:

§ 18. The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases:

Changing the names of persons.

Laying out, opening, altering, working or discontinuing roads, highways, or alleys, or for draining swamps or other low lands. Granting any state lands, or any interest therein.

Locating or changing county seats.

Providing for changes of venue in civil or criminal cases.
Incorporating villages.

Providing for election of members of boards of supervisors. Selecting, drawing, summoning or empaneling grand or petit jurors.

Regulating the rate of interest on money.

The opening and conducting of elections or designating places of voting.

Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentage or allowances of public officers, during the terms for which said officers are elected or appointed.

Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks.

Granting to any private corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever.

Granting to any person, association, firm or corporation, an exemption from taxation on real or personal property.

Providing for building bridges, and chartering companies for such purposes, except on the Hudson river below Waterford, and on the East river, or over the waters forming a part of the boundaries of the state.

Legalizing, ratifying or confirming the proceedings of a municipal corporation or political subdivision of the state, or the officers or authorities thereof, in providing for the issuance and sale of the bonds or other evidences of indebtedness of such municipal corporation or political subdivision of the state, or validating such bonds or other evidences of indebtedness after their issuance and sale.

The legislature shall pass general laws providing for the cases enumerated in this section, and for all other cases which in its

judgment may be provided for by general laws. But no law shall authorize the construction or operation of a street railroad except upon the condition that the consent of the owners of one-half in value of the property bounded on, and the consent also of the local authorities having the control of, that portion of a street or highway upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such railroad be first obtained, or in case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, the appellate division of the supreme court, in the department in which it is proposed to be constructed, may, upon application, appoint three commissioners who shall determine, after a hearing of all parties interested, whether such railroad ought to be constructed or operated, and their determination, confirmed by the court, may be taken in lieu of the consent of the property owners.

§ 2. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That the foregoing amendment be referred to the legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators, and that in conformity to section one, article fourteen of the constitution, it be published for three months previous to the time of such election.

Also, the concurrent resolution (No. 1668, Int. No. 1188) entitled as follows:

Concurrent resolution of the Senate and Assembly proposing to amend sections two, four, five, eleven and twelve of article seven of the constitution, in relation to debts contracted by the state.

Section 1. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That sections two, four, five, eleven and twelve of article seven of the constitution be amended to read as follows:

§ 2. The state may[, to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, or for expenses not provided for, contract debts; but such debts, direct or contingent, singly or in the aggregate, shall not at any time exceed one million of dollars; and the moneys arising from the loans creating such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which they were obtained, or to repay the debt so contracted, and to no other purpose whatever.] contracts debts in anticipation of the receipt of taxes and revenues, direct or indirect, for the purposes and within the amounts of appropriations theretofore made; bonds or other obligations for the moneys so borrowed shall be issued as may be provided by law, and shall with the interest thereon be paid from such taxes and revenues within one year from the date of issue.

§ 4. Except the debts specified in sections two and three of this article, no debt [s] shall be hereafter contracted by or in behalf of this state, unless such debt shall be authorized by law, for some

single work or object, to be distinctly specified therein.[; and such law shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay, and sufficient to pay, the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt within fifty years from the time of the contracting thereof. No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election.] On the final passage of such bill in either house of the legislature, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes, to be duly entered on the journals thereof, and shall be: "Shall this bill pass and ought the same to receive the sanction of the people?" No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election nor shall it be submitted to be voted on within three months after its passage nor at any general election when any other law, or any bill shall be submitted to be voted for or against. The legislature may, at any time after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance thereof, repeal the same; and may at any time, by law, forbid the contracting of any further debt or liability under such law. [but the tax imposed by such act, in proportion to the debt and liability which may have been contracted in pursuance of such law, shall remain in force and be irrepealable, and be annually collected, until the proceeds thereof shall have made the provision hereinbefore specified to pay and discharge the interest and principal of such debt and liability.]

Except the debts specified in sections two and three of this article, all debts contracted by the state after January first, nineteen hundred and twenty, pursuant to an authorization therefor, heretofore or hereafter made and each portion of any such debt from time to time so contracted irrespective of the terms of such authorization, shall be paid in equal annual instalments, the first of which shall be payable not more than one year, and the last of which shall be payable not more than fifty years, after such debt or portion thereof shall have been contracted. No such debt hereafter authorized shall be contracted for a period longer than that of the probable life of the work or object for which the debt is to be contracted, to be determined by general laws, which determination shall be conclusive.

The legislature may from time to time alter the rate of interest to be paid upon any state debt which has been or may be authorized pursuant to the provisions of this section or upon any part of such debt, provided, however, that the rate of interest shall not be altered upon any part of such debt or upon any bond or other evidence thereof which has been or shall be created or issued before such alteration.

The money arising from any loan [or stock] creating such debt or liability shall be applied to the work or object specified in the act authorizing such debt or liability, or for the payment of such debt or liability, and for no other purpose whatever. [No such law shall be submitted to be voted on within three months after its passage or at any general election when any other law, or any bill shall be submitted to be voted for or against. The legislature may provide for the issue of bonds of the state to run for a period not exceeding fifty years in lieu of bonds heretofore authorized but not issued and shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax for the payment of the same as hereinbefore required. When any sinking fund created under this section shall equal in amount the debt for which it was created, no further direct tax shall be levied on account of said sinking fund, and the legislature shall reduce the tax to an amount equal to the accruing interest on such debt. The legislature may from time to time alter the rate of interest to be paid upon any state debt, which has been or may be authorized pursuant to the provisions of this section, or upon any part of such debt, provided, however, that the rate of interest shall not be altered upon any part of such debt or upon any bond or other evidence thereof, which has been, or shall be created or issued before such alteration. In case the legislature increase the rate of interest upon any such debt, or part thereof, it shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay and sufficient to pay the increased or altered interest on such debt as it fall due and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt within fifty years from the time of the contracting thereof, and shall appropriate annually to the sinking fund moneys in amount sufficient to pay interest and pay and discharge the principal of such debt when it shall become due and payable.]

§ 5. The sinking funds provided for the payment of interest and the extinguishment of the principal of the debts of the state heretofore contracted shall be continued; they shall be separately kept and safely invested and neither of them shall be appropriated or used in any manner other than for [the specific purpose for which it shall have been provided] such payment and extinguishment as hereinafter provided. The comptroller shall each year appraise the securities held for investment in each of such funds at their fair market value not exceeding par. He shall then determine and certify to the legislature the amount of each of such funds and the amounts which, if thereafter annually contributed to each such fund, would, with the fund and with the accumulations thereon and upon the contributions thereto, computed at the rate of three per centum per annum, produce at the date of

maturity the amount of the debt to retire which such fund was created, and the legislature shall thereupon appropriate as the contribution to each such fund for such year at least the amount thus certified.

If the income of any such fund in any year is more than a sum which, if annually added to such fund would, with the fund and its accumulations as aforesaid, retire the debt at maturity, the excess income may be applied to the interest on the debt for which the fund was created.

After any sinking fund shall equal in amount the debt for which it was created no further contribution shall be made thereto except to make good any losses ascertained at the annual appraisals above mentioned, and the income thereof shall be applied to the payment of the interest on such debt. Any excess in such income not required for the payment of interest may be applied to the general fund of the state.

The legislature may also by general laws provide means and authority whereby outstanding bonds of the state, for which sinking funds are provided, may be exchanged at par for cancellation, for serial bonds of the form authorized under section four of this article, upon such terms and conditions as to interest and otherwise as it may in its discretion authorize or determine, except that the debt as thus refunded shall finally mature no later and at no greater comparative cost to the state than the original debt; the determination of the legislature as to such comparative cost shall be conclusive. No further contributions to the respective sinking funds shall be made on account of bonds so exchanged and the proportion of any such sinking fund which the amount of the bonds so exchanged shall bear to the amount of bonds outstanding of the same issue may be appropriated, as required, for the payment of the substituted serial bonds.

§ 11. [The legislature may appropriate out of any funds in the treasury, moneys to pay the accruing interest and principal of any debt heretofore or hereafter created, or any part thereof and may set apart in each fiscal year, moneys in the state treasury as a sinking fund to pay the interest as it falls due and to pay and discharge the principal of any debt heretofore or hereafter created under section four of article seven of the constitution until the same shall be wholly paid, and the principal and income of such sinking fund shall be applied to the purpose for which said sinking fund is created and to no other purpose whatever; and, in the event such moneys so set apart in any fiscal year be sufficient to provide such sinking fund, a direct annual tax for such year need not be imposed and collected, as required by the provisions of said section four of article seven, or of any law enacted in

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