§ 109-b. Custody and investment of fund. 1. The fund created by this article shall be separate and apart from any other fund so created and from all other state moneys, and the faith and credit of the state of New York is pledged for its safekeeping. The commissioner of taxation and finance shall be the custodian of said fund; and all disbursements from said fund shall be made by the commissioner of taxation and finance upon vouchers signed by the superintendent of financial services, or his deputy, as hereinafter provided. The moneys of said fund may be invested by the commissioner of taxation and finance in the stocks or bonds of the United States or of this state and in interest bearing certificates of deposit of a bank or trust company located and authorized to do business in this state or of a national bank located in this state secured by a pledge of direct obligations of the United States or of the state of New York, or in accordance with the provisions of section ninety-eight-a of the state finance law, in an amount equal to the amount of such certificates of deposit. The commissioner of taxation and finance may sell any of the securities or certificates of deposit in which said fund is invested, if advisable for its proper administration or in the best interests of such fund, and all earnings from the investments of such fund shall be credited to such fund. 2. (a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the superintendent of financial services shall annually no later than November first in each year, submit to the director of the budget a request for an appropriation of sixty-seven million dollars. The governor shall include such amount in a budget bill for the next state fiscal year. The state comptroller shall encumber the amount so appropriated before the end of the fiscal year for which any such appropriation is made. If for any fiscal year commencing on or after April first, nineteen hundred eighty-three, the governor fails to submit a budget bill containing an appropriation in the amount requested by the superintendent of financial services or the legislature fails to appropriate the amount in a budget bill submitted by the governor for such fiscal year, the amount appropriated for and encumbered during the preceding fiscal year shall be payable forthwith to the fund on the first day of July of such year in the manner prescribed by law, provided, however, that such amount shall not exceed the amount of moneys transferred to the general fund from the fund pursuant to the provisions of chapter fifty-five of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-two.(b) It is hereby found and declared that any appropriation made as provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall be deemed an asset of the fund, and that any transfer of moneys from such fund to the general fund in accordance with the provisions of chapter fifty-five of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-two is deemed a proper and prudent legal undertaking for any state officer with the responsibility for the custody or the investment of the assets of the fund, notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary.
