N.Y. STF Law § 51

§ 51. Interchange of appropriations or items therein. No appropriation\nshall be increased or decreased by transfer or otherwise except as\nprovided for in this section or section fifty-three, sixty-six-f,\nseventy-two or ninety-three of this chapter, or article eight of the\neducation law. Whenever an appropriation is made from a fund to a\ndepartment or agency and is accompanied by a schedule showing the\nprograms or purposes for which such appropriation may be expended, the\namount appropriated for any item or items within any program or purpose\nfor such department or agency may be increased or decreased by\ninterchange with amounts appropriated from such fund for any other item\nor items within the same program or purpose, or with other items\nappropriated from such fund not in the same program or purpose but which\nare contained in the state comptroller's classification of items as last\npromulgated, with the approval of the director of the budget, who shall\nfile such approval with the office of the state comptroller and copies\nthereof with the senate finance committee and the assembly ways and\nmeans committee. The amounts appropriated to a department or agency from\na particular fund in a fiscal year for the programs or purposes of such\ndepartment or agency may be interchanged among such programs or purposes\nunder the same conditions as heretofore described except that the total\namount appropriated for any program or purpose may not be increased or\ndecreased by more than the aggregate of five per cent of the first five\nmillion dollars, four percent of the second five million dollars and\nthree per cent of amounts in excess of ten million dollars of an\nappropriation for a program or purpose. The allocation of lump sum\nappropriations from a fund made to a department or agency for later\ndistribution to programs or purposes or to the units of the state\nuniversity to the allocation of lump sum appropriations made to all\nstate departments and agencies for later allocation for specific\nprograms or purposes shall not be deemed to be part of such total\nincrease or decrease.\n