§ 92-u. New York state canal system development fund. 1. Pursuant to article fifteen of the state constitution, there is hereby established in the joint custody of the state comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and finance a fund to be known as the "New York state canal system development fund".

2. Such fund shall consist of all revenues received from the operation of the New York state canal system as defined in section three hundred fifty-one of the public authorities law and section two of the canal law, including payments on leases for use of canal lands, terminals and terminal lands, tolls received for lock and lift bridge passage, payments for hydroelectric easements and sales, for purchase of other abandoned canal lands, payments for any permits and leases for use of the water and lands of the system and payments for use of dry docks and other moneys made available to the fund from any other source other than a grant, loan or other inter-corporate transfer of funds of the power authority of the state of New York, and any income earned by, or incremental to, the fund due to investment thereof, or any repayment of any moneys advanced by the fund.

3. Moneys in the New York state canal system development fund may be invested by the comptroller pursuant to section ninety-eight-a of this article, and any income received by the comptroller shall be added to and become a part of, and shall be used for the purposes of such fund.

4. The moneys held in or credited to the fund shall be expended for the purposes set forth in this section, and may not be interchanged or commingled with any other account or fund but may be commingled with any other fund or account for investment purposes.

5. Moneys of the fund, following appropriation by the legislature, shall be available to the power authority of the state of New York and shall be expended by such authority or the canal corporation only for the maintenance, construction, reconstruction, development or promotion of the canal system. In addition, moneys of the fund may be used for the purposes of interpretive signage and promotion for appropriate historically significant Erie canal lands and related sites. Moneys shall be paid out of the fund by the state comptroller on certificates issued by the director of the budget.