2006 New York Code - Gift or loan of state credit or money prohibited; exceptions for enumerated purposes.

 
    §  8.  1. The money of the state shall not be given or loaned to or in
  aid of any private corporation or association, or  private  undertaking;
  nor shall the credit of the state be given or loaned to or in aid of any
  individual,  or public or private corporation or association, or private
  undertaking, but the foregoing provisions shall not apply to any fund or
  property now held or which may  hereafter  be  held  by  the  state  for
  educational, mental health or mental retardation purposes.
    2. Subject to the limitations on indebtedness and taxation, nothing in
  this constitution contained shall prevent the legislature from providing
  for  the  aid,  care  and  support  of  the  needy  directly  or through
  subdivisions of the  state;  or  for  the  protection  by  insurance  or
  otherwise, against the hazards of unemployment, sickness and old age; or
  for  the  education  and  support  of the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the
  physically handicapped, the mentally ill, the emotionally disturbed, the
  mentally retarded or juvenile delinquents as it may deem proper; or  for
  health and welfare services for all children, either directly or through
  subdivisions  of  the state, including school districts; or for the aid,
  care and support of neglected and dependent children and  of  the  needy
  sick, through agencies and institutions authorized by the state board of
  social  welfare or other state department having the power of inspection
  thereof, by payments made on a per capita basis directly or through  the
  subdivisions of the state; or for the increase in the amount of pensions
  of  any  member of a retirement system of the state, or of a subdivision
  of the state; or for an increase in the amount of  pension  benefits  of
  any  widow  or widower of a retired member of a retirement system of the
  state or of a subdivision of the state to whom  payable  as  beneficiary
  under  an  optional  settlement  in  connection with the pension of such
  member. The enumeration of legislative powers in  this  paragraph  shall
  not be taken to diminish any power of the legislature hitherto existing.
    3.   Nothing   in   this  constitution  contained  shall  prevent  the
  legislature from authorizing the loan of the money of  the  state  to  a
  public  corporation  to  be organized for the purpose of making loans to
  non-profit corporations or for the purpose of guaranteeing loans made by
  banking organizations, as that term shall be defined by the legislature,
  to finance the construction of new industrial or  manufacturing  plants,
  the   construction  of  new  buildings  to  be  used  for  research  and
  development, the construction of other eligible business facilities, and
  for the  purchase  of  machinery  and  equipment  related  to  such  new
  industrial  or manufacturing plants, research and development buildings,
  and other eligible business facilities in this state or the acquisition,
  rehabilitation or  improvement  of  former  or  existing  industrial  or
  manufacturing plants, buildings to be used for research and development,
  other  eligible business facilities, and machinery and equipment in this
  state, including the acquisition of real property therefor, and the  use
  of  such  money by such public corporation for such purposes, to improve
  employment opportunities in any area of the  state,  provided,  however,
  that any such plants, buildings or facilities or machinery and equipment
  therefor shall not be (i) primarily used in making retail sales of goods
  or  services to customers who personally visit such facilities to obtain
  such goods or services or (ii) used  primarily  as  a  hotel,  apartment
  house  or  other  place  of  business  which furnishes dwelling space or
  accommodations to either residents or transients, and  provided  further
  that  any  loan  by  such  public corporation shall not exceed sixty per
  centum of the cost of any such project and the repayment of which  shall
  be secured by a mortgage thereon which shall not be a junior encumbrance
  thereon  by  more  than  fifty  per centum of such cost or by a security
  interest if personalty, and that the amount of any guarantee of  a  loan


  made by a banking organization shall not exceed eighty per centum of the
  cost of any such project.