be allowed to become indebted for any purpose or in any manner to an amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall exceed ten per centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate of such county or city subject to taxation, as it appeared by the assessment rolls of said county or city on the last assessment for state or county taxes prior to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all indebtedness in excess of such limitation, except such as now may exist, shall be absolutely void, except as herein otherwise provided. No county or city whose present indebtedness exceeds ten per centum of the assessed valuation of its real estate subject to taxation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any further amount until such indebtedness shall be reduced within such limit. This section. shall not be construed to prevent the issuing of certificates of indebtedness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of taxes for amounts actually contained, or to be contained in the taxes for the year when such certificates or revenue bonds are issued and payable out of such taxes. Nor shall this section be construed to prevent the issue of bonds to provide for the supply of water; but the term of the bonds issued to provide the supply of water shall not exceed twenty years, and a sinking fund shall be created on the issuing of the said bonds for their redemption, by raising annually a sum which will produce an amount equal to the sum of the principal and interest of said bonds at their maturity. All certificates of indebtedness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of taxes, which are not retired within five years after their date of issue, and bonds issued to provide for the supply of water, and any debt hereafter incurred by any portion or part of a city, if there shall be any such debt, shall be included in ascertaining the power of the city to become otherwise indebted; except that debts incurred by the city of New York after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and four, and debts incurred by any city of the second class after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight, to provide for the supply of water shall not be so included. Whenever the boundaries of any city are the same as those of a county, or when any city shall include within its boundaries more than one county, the power of any county wholly included within such city to become indebted shall cease, but the debt of the county, heretofore existing, shall not, for the purposes of this section, be reckoned as a part of the city debt. The amount hereafter to be raised by tax for county or city purposes, in any county containing a city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, or any such city of this state, in addition to providing for the principal and interest of existing debt, shall not in the aggregate exceed in any one year two per centum of the assessed valuation of the real and personal estate of such county or city, to be ascertained as prescribed in this section in respect to county or city debt. § 2. Resolved (if the senate concur), That the foregoing amendment be submitted to the people for approval at the general election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and seven, in accordance with the provisions of the election law. STATE OF NEW YORK, IN ASSEMBLY, May 2, 1907. The foregoing resolution was duly passed, a majority of all the members elected to the Assembly voting in favor thereof, three-fifths being present. By order of the Assembly, J. W. WADSWORTH, JR., Speaker. STATE OF NEW YORK, IN SENATE, May 29, 1907. The foregoing resolution was duly passed, a majority of all the Senaters elected voting in favor thereof, threefifths being present. By order of the Senate, L. S. CHANLER, President CONCURRENT RESOLUTION of the senate and assembly proposing an amendment to section two of article twelve of the constitution in relation to the classification of cities. Whereas, The legislature at its regular session in nineteen hundred and six duly adopted a resolution, proposing an amendment to section two of article twelve of the constitution in relation to the classification of cities; and Whereas, Such resolution has been duly published in accordance with law and the constitution, and referred to this legislature for action; therefore: Section 1. Resolved (if the senate concur), That section two of article twelve of the constitution be amended to read as follows: § 2. All cities are classified according to the latest state enumeration, as from time to time made, as follows: The first class includes all cities having a population of one hundred and seventyfive thousand or more; the second class, all cities having a population of fifty thousand and less than one hundred and seventy-five thousand; the third class, all other cities. Laws relating to the property, affairs of government of cities, and the several departments thereof, are divided into general and special city laws; general city laws are those which relate to all the cities of one or more classes; special city laws are those which relate to a single city, or to less than all the cities of a class. Special city laws shall not be passed except in conformity with the provisions of this section. After any bill for a special city law, relating to a city, has been passed by both branches of the legislature, the house in which it originated shall immediately transmit a certified copy thereof to the mayor of such city, and within fifteen days thereafter the mayor shall return such bill to the house from which it was sent, or if the session of the legislature at which such bill was passed has terminated, to the governor, with the mayor's certificate thereon, stating whether the city has or has not accepted the same. In every city of the first class, the mayor, and in every other city, the mayor and the legislative body thereof concurrently, shall act for such city as to such bill; but the legislature may provide for the concurrence of the legislative body in cities of the first class. The legislature shall provide for a public notice and opportunity for a public hearing concerning any such bill in every city to which it relates, before action thereon. Such a bill, if it relates to more than one city, shall be transmitted to the mayor of each city to which it relates, and shall not be deemed accepted unless accepted as herein provided, by every such city. Whenever any such bill is accepted as herein provided, it shall be subject as are other bills, to the action of the governor. Whenever, during the session at which it was passed, any such bill is returned without the acceptance of the city or cities to which it relates, or within such fifteen days is not returned, it may nevertheless again be passed by both branches of the legislature, and it shall then be subject as are other bills, to the action of the governor. In every special city law which has been accepted by the city or cities to which it relates, the title shall be followed by the words "accepted by the city," or "cities," as the case may be; in every such law which is passed without such acceptance, by the words "passed without the acceptance of the city," or cities," as the case may be. § 2. Resolved (if the senate concur), That the foregoing amendment be submitted to the people for approval at the general election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and seven, in accordance with the provisions of the election law. STATE OF NEW YORK, IN ASSEMBLY, Feb. 18, 1907. The foregoing resolution was duly passed, a majority of all the members elected to the Assembly voting in favor thereof, three-fifths being present. By order of the Assembly, STATE OF NEW YORK, IN SENATE, Mar. 5, 1907. The foregoing resolution was duly passed, a majority of all the Senators elected voting in favor thereof, threefifths being present. By order of the Senate, LEWIS STUYVESANT CHANLER, President. CONCURRENT RESOLUTION of the senate and assembly proposing an amendment to section two of article six of the constitution in relation to justices of the appellate division of the supreme court. Section 1. Resolved (if the assembly concur) That section two of article six of the constitution be amended to read as follows: ARTICLE VI. § 2. The legislature shall divide the state into four judicial departments. The first department shall consist of the county of New York; the others shall be bounded by county lines, and be compact and equal in population as nearly as may be. Once every ten years the legislature may alter the judicial departments, but without increasing the number thereof. There shall be an appellate division of the supreme court, consisting of seven justices in the first department, and of five justices in each of the other departments. In each department four shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of three shall be necessary to a decision. No more than five justices shall sit in any case. From all the justices elected to the supreme court the governor shall designate those who shall constitute the appellate division in each department; and he shall designate the presiding justice thereof, who shall act as such during his term of office, and shall be a resident of the department. The other justices shall be designated for terms of five years or the unexpired portions of their respective terms of office, if less than five years. From time to time as the terms of such designations expire, or vacancies occur, he shall make new designations. A majority of the justices so designated to sit in the appellate division, in each department shall be residents of the department. He may also make temporary designations in case of the absence or inability to act to any justice in the appellate division, or in case the presiding justice of any appellate division shall certify to him that one or more additional justices are needed for the speedy disposition of the business before it. Whenever the appellate division in any department shall be unable to dispose of its business within a reasonable time, a majority of the presiding justices of the several departments at a meeting called by the presiding justice of the department in arrears may transfer any pending appeals from such department to any other department for hearing and determination. No justice of the appellate division shall, within the department to which he may be designated to perform the duties of an appellate justice, exercise any of the powers of a justice of the supreme court, other than those of a justice out of court, and those pertaining to the appellate division, or to the hearing and decision of motions submitted by consent of counsel, but any such justice, when not actually engaged in performing the duties of such appellate justice in the department to which he is designated, may hold any term of the supreme court and exercise any of the powers of a justice of the supreme court in any county or judicial district in any other department of the state. From and after the last day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, the appellate division shall have the jurisdiction now exercised by the supreme court at its general terms and by the general terms of the court of common pleas for the city and county of New York, the superior court of the city of New York, the superior court of Buffalo and the city of Brooklyn, and such additional jurisdiction as may be conferred by the legislature. It shall have power to appoint and remove a reporter. The justices of the appellate division in each department shall have power to fix the times and places for holding special and trial terms therein, and to assign the justices in the departments to hold such terms; or to make rules therefor. § 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 in conformity with section one, article fourteen of the constitution, be published for three months previous to the time of such election. STATE OF NEW YORK, The foregoing resolution was duly President. STATE OF NEW YORK, IN ASSEMBLY, Mar. 12, 1907. The foregoing resolution was duly passed, a majority of all the members elected to the Assembly voting in favor thereof. By order of the Assembly, CONCURRENT RESOLUTION of the senate and assembly proposing an amendment to section seven of article six of the constitution in relation to judges of the court of appeals and justices of the supreme court. Section 1. Resolved (if the senate concur), That section seven of article six of the constitution be amended to read as follows: |