AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Adopted by the people at the general election November 8, 1927. ARTICLE I taking property. roads. § 7. When private property shall be taken for any public use, compensa. the compensation to be made therefor, when such compensation is tion for not made by the state, shall be ascertained by a jury, or by the private supreme court with or without a jury, but not with a referee, or by not less than three commissioners appointed by a court of record, as shall be prescribed by law. Private roads may be opened Opening in the manner to be prescribed by law; but in every case the private necessity of the road and the amount of all damage to be sustained by the opening thereof shall be first determined by a jury of freeholders, and such amount, together with the expenses of the proceedings, shall be paid by the person to be benefited. The use Use of of property for the drainage of swamp or agricultural lands is property declared to be a public use and general laws may be passed per- age of mitting the owner or occupants of swamp or agricultural lands to agricul construct and maintain for the drainage thereof, necessary drains, ditches and dykes upon the lands of others, under proper restrictions on making just compensation, and such compensation together with the cost of such drainage may be assessed, wholly or partly, against any property benefited thereby; but no special laws shall be enacted for such purposes. for drain swamp or tural lands. tion by counties. The legislature may authorize cities and counties' to take more Excess land and property than is needed for actual construction in the condemnalaying out, widening, extending or relocating parks, public places, cities and highways or streets; provided, however, that the additional land and property so authorized to be taken shall be no more than sufficient to form suitable building sites abutting on such park, public place, highway or street. After so much of the land and property has been appropriated for such park, public place, highway or street as is needed therefor, the remainder may be sold or leased. ARTICLE III Salaries mileage § 6. Each member of the legislature shall receive for his services an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars. The and members of either house shall also receive the sum of one dollar of mem 1 Words "and counties" new. 2 Formerly read: "one thousand five hundred dollars." bers of legislature. Powers and duties of governor. Salary. Compen sation of lieutenantgovernor. Submission of estimates Amendments to the Constitution for every ten miles they shall travel in going to and returning from their place of meeting, once in each session on the most usual route. Senators, when the senate alone is convened in extraordinary session, or when serving as members of the court for the trial. of impeachments, and such members of the assembly, not exceeding nine in number, as shall be appointed managers of an impeachment, shall receive an additional allowance of ten dollars a day. ARTICLE IV § 4. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the state. He shall have power to convene the legislature, or the senate only, on extraordinary occasions. At extraordinary sessions no subject shall be acted upon, except such as the governor may recommend for consideration. He shall communicate by message to the legislature at every session the condition of the state, and recommend such matters to it as he shall judge expedient. He shall transact all necessary business with the officers of government, civil and military. He shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved upon by the legis lature, and shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed. He shall receive for his services an annual salary of twenty-five thousand dollars, and there shall be provided for his use a suitable and furnished executive residence. § 8. The lieutenant-governor shall receive for his services an annual salary of ten thousand dollars, and shall not receive or be entitled to any other compensation, fee or perquisite, for any duty or service he may be required to perform by the constitution or by law. ARTICLE IV-A5 § 1. On or before the fifteenth day of October in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-eight and in each year thereafter by depart the head of each department of the state government, except the ments. Hearings; revision. legislature and judiciary, shall submit to the governor itemized estimates of appropriations to meet the financial needs of such department, including a statement in detail of all moneys for which any general or special appropriation is desired at the ensuing session of the legislature, classified according to relative importance and in such form and with such explanation as the governor may require. Copies of such estimates shall be simultaneously furnished to the designated representatives of the appropriate committees of the legislature for their information. The governor, after hearings thereon, at which he may require the attendance of heads of departments and their subordinates, shall revise such estimates according to his judgment. The representatives aforesaid of the committees of the legislature shall be invited to attend such hearings, and under regulations to be pro • Formerly read: "ten thousand dollars.” Amendments to the Constitution vided by law shall be entitled to make inquiry in respect to the estimates and the revision thereof. lative and Itemized estimates of the financial needs of the legislature cer- Legis tified by the presiding officer of each house and of the judiciary Judicial certified by the comptroller shall be transmitted to the governor estimates. on or before said fifteenth day of October for inclusion in the budget without revision but with such recommendation as he may think proper. sion of legisla governor. § 2. On or before the fifteenth day of January next succeeding Submis (except in the case of a newly elected governor and then on or budget. before the first day of February) he shall submit to the legislature et to a budget containing a complete plan of proposed expenditures and ture by estimated revenues. It shall contain all the estimates so revised or certified and clearly itemized, and shall be accompanied by a bill or bills for all proposed appropriations and reappropriations; it shall show the estimated revenues for the ensuing fiscal year and the estimated surplus or deficit of revenues at the end of the current fiscal year, together with the measures of taxation, if any, which the governor may propose for the increase of the revenues. It shall be accompanied by a statement of current assets, liabilities, reserves and surplus or deficit of the state; statements of the debts and funds of the state; an estimate of its financial condition as of the beginning and end of the ensuing fiscal year; and a statement of revenues and expenditures for the two fiscal years next preceding said year in form suitable for comparison. The governor Amendmay before final action by the legislature thereon, and not more budget. than thirty days after submission thereof, amend or supplement the budget; he may also with the consent of the legislature, submit such amendment or a supplemental bill at any time before the adjournment of the legislature. ment of mission A copy of the budget and of any amendments or additions Transthereto shall be forthwith transmited by the governor to the to compcomptroller. troller. hearings. legis § 3. The governor and the heads of departments shall have Legislative the right, and it shall be the duty of the heads of departments when requested by either house of the legislature, to appear and be heard in respect to the budget during the consideration thereof, and to answer inquiries relevant thereto. The procedure for such appearance and inquiries shall be provided by law. The legisla- Powers of ture may not alter an appropriation bill submitted by the governor lature. except to strike out or reduce items therein, but it may add thereto items of appropriation provided that such additions are stated separately and distinctly from the original items of the bill and refer each to a single object or purpose; none of the restrictions of this provision, however, shall apply to appropriations for the legislature or judiciary. Such a bill when passed by both houses Necessity shall be a law immediately without further action by the governor, tive apexcept that appropriations for the legislature and judiciary and proval of separate items added to the governor's bills by the legislature passed. for execu bill when Further appropriations. Amendments to the Constitution shall be subject to his approval as provided in section nine of article four. § 4. Neither house shall consider further appropriations until the appropriation bills proposed by the governor shall have been finally acted on by both houses; nor shall such further appropriations be then made except by separate bills each for a single work or object, which bills shall be subject to the governor's Bills for approval as provided in section nine of article four. Nothing immediate needs. Heads of state de herein contained shall be construed to prevent the governor from recommending that one or more of his proposed bills be passed in advance of the others to supply the immediate needs of government or to meet an emergency. ARTICLE V 4. The head of the executive department shall be the govpartments. ernor. The head of the department of audit and control shall be the comptroller and of the department of law, the attorneygeneral. The head of the department of education shall be the regents of the university of the state of New York, who shall appoint and at pleasure remove a commissioner of education to be the chief administrative officer of the department. The head of the department of agriculture and markets shall be appointed in a manner to be prescribed by law. Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, the heads of all other departments and the members of all boards and commissions mentioned in this article, excepting temporary commissions for special purposes, shall be appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate and may be removed by the governor, in a manner to be prescribed by law. Forest preserve. State highways in. Reservoirs for ARTICLE VII § 7. The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the state from constructing a state highway from Saranac lake in Franklin county to Long lake in Hamilton county and thence to Old Forge in Herkimer county by way of Blue Mountain lake and Racquette lake, and nothing shall prevent the state from constructing a state highway in Essex county from Wilmington to the top of Whiteface mountain. The legislature may by general laws provide for the use of not municipal exceeding three per centum of such lands for the construction and maintenance of reservoirs for municipal water supply, for the canals of the state and to regulate the flow of streams. Such reser water supply. Words "The head of the executive department shall be the governor” new. 1 Remainder of sentence new. Amendments to the Constitution voirs shall be constructed, owned and controlled by the state, but such work shall not be undertaken until after the boundaries and high flow lines thereof shall have been accurately surveyed and fixed, and after public notice, hearing and determination that such lands are required for such public use. The expense of any such improvements shall be apportioned on the public and private property and municipalities benefited to the extent of the benefits received. Any such reservoir shall always be operated by the state and the legislature shall provide for a charge upon the property and municipalities benefited for a reasonable return to the state upon the value of the rights and property of the state used and the services of the state rendered, which shall be fixed for terms of not exceeding ten years and be readjustable at the end of any term. Unsanitary conditions shall not be created or continued by any such public works. A violation of any of the provisions Violations of this section may be restrained at the suit of the people or, with may be the consent of the supreme court in appellate division, on notice to the attorney-general at the suit of any citizen. restrained author ment of expense. § 14. The legislature may authorize by law the creation of a debt Creation or debts of the state, not exceeding in the aggregate three hundred of debts million dollars, to provide moneys for the elimination, under state ized. supervision, of railroad crossings at grade within the state, at the expense of the state, railroad companies, counties and cities, as hereinafter provided. Of the expense of a grade crossing elimina- Apportiontion to which any of the proceeds of such a debt are applied, fifty m per centum shall be borne by the railroad company. "The remaining fifty per centum shall be borne by the state and the county in which the crossing is located, or by the state and the city in which it is located if the city contain two or more counties; except that if so provided by law, such remaining fifty per centum of the expense of elimination of a grade crossing in any other city shall be borne by the state, the county and such city. The proportions of the expense of a grade crossing elimination to be borne by the state and county, state and city, or state, county and city, under the provisions of this section, shall be determined by or pursuant to law. Laws shall be enacted to provide, so far as practicable, for Repay. repayment to the state of moneys advanced in aid of railroad state of companies, counties and12 cities,13 at such times, in such manner and moneys with interest at such rate, that the state shall be able to pay when due the portion of the state debt equal to the proceeds which shall have been so advanced, and interest thereon. The provisions of this article, not inconsistent with this section, re- Applica 8 Remainder of sentence formerly read: "cities, towns and villages." 9 Formerly read: "twenty-five per centum." 12 Remainder of sentence formerly read: "state, twenty-five per centum by the city, town or village, and fifty per centum by the railroad company." 11 Following sentence new. 12 Words "counties and" new. 13 Words ", towns and villages" omitted. ment to advanced, tion of provisions of art. 7. |