N.Y. Const. art. VII, § 8: 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.