Whenever in any general law or public law or resolution of the general assembly prior to February 7, 1939 there shall have been stated a fixed amount for a salary, wage, compensation, or for personal services, or for clerical assistance, or a fixed amount for office expense, printing and binding, advertising, traveling expense, repairs and replacements, or other specified charges, it shall be hereafter construed that the designation of a specified amount is eliminated from that law and the phrase "The general assembly shall annually appropriate such sum as it may deem necessary for such purpose" shall be substituted therefor.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-20-6