2023 New York Laws › NPC - Not-For-Profit Corporation › Article 14 - Special Not-for-Profit Corporations › 1405 - Soldiers' Monument Corporations.

§ 1405. Soldiers' monument corporations.
(a) Property; erection of monuments.
A  corporation  formed  for  the purpose of erecting and maintaining a
monument  or  memorial,  including  a  memorial  hall  or  building   to
perpetuate  the  memory of persons who served in the armed forces of the
United Colonies or of the United States in the  Revolutionary  War,  the
Civil  War,  or  in  any  other  war in which the United States has been
engaged may acquire and hold real property necessary for  its  corporate
purposes,  and  may  erect any such monument, monuments or memorial upon
any public street, square or ground of any town, city or  village,  with
the  consent  of  the proper officers thereof, or may purchase or accept
the donation of land suitable for that purpose; and may  take  and  hold
the  property  given, devised or bequeathed to it in trust, to apply the
same or the income or proceeds thereof for  the  erection,  improvement,
embellishment,  preservation,  repair,  renewal, care and maintenance of
such monument, monuments or memorial, or of  any  structure,  fences  or
walks  upon  its  lands,  or  for planting or cultivating trees, shrubs,
flowers and plants, in and around or upon its lands, or for improving or
embellishing the same in any  manner  consistent  with  the  design  and
purposes  of  the  association,  according  to  the terms of such grant,
devise or bequest. It may take by gift or purchase any lots or lands  in
any  cemetery  to  be  used  and  occupied exclusively for the burial of
honorably discharged members of the armed forces who served  in  any  of
such  wars,  and  for  the  erection  of suitable monuments or memorials
therein.
(b) Type of corporation.
A soldiers' monument corporation is a charitable corporation.
(c) Town and village aid.
The town clerk of a town or the board of trustees of a  village,  upon
the  petition  of  twenty-five  resident  taxpayers,  shall  submit to a
biennial town meeting or  village  election,  as  the  case  may  be,  a
proposition  to  raise  by  taxation a sum stated therein, not exceeding
five hundred dollars in any one year, to be spent during the fiscal year
for which such tax is to be levied, for the purpose of erecting  such  a
monument,  or contributing to the expense of such a monument, erected by
a corporation specified in this article, or for repairing, improving and
maintaining the same and the grounds thereof;  and  such  tax  shall  be
levied in the manner prescribed by law for levying general taxes in such
town  or  village,  and  when  raised  shall  be applied to the purposes
specified in such proposition.
(d) Exemptions.
The property of a corporation  specified  in  this  section  or  of  a
corporation  formed  under  the  laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-six,
chapter two hundred and seventy-three, as amended by  laws  of  eighteen
hundred  and eighty-eight, chapter two hundred and ninety-nine, shall be
exempt from levy and sale on execution, and from all public taxes, rates
and assessments, and no street, road, avenue or  thoroughfare  shall  be
laid  through  the  lands  of  such  association  held  for the purposes
aforesaid without the consent  of  the  trustees  of  such  corporation,
except by special permission of the legislature of the state.
(e) Improvement taxes.
A  tax  may be levied and collected on the taxable property in a town,
village or city in which such monument, monuments or other memorial  may
be  erected,  for the purpose of repairing or improving the same and the
grounds thereof; and such tax shall be levied in the  manner  prescribed
by law for levying general taxes in such town, village or city.
(f) Transfer of property from unincorporated association.
Any unincorporated association organized solely for one or more of the
purposes  set  forth  in  paragraph  (a)  by  a majority vote of all its
members present  at  a  meeting  thereof,  called  as  in  this  section
provided,  may  transfer  to  and  vest  in any incorporated association
created  by  general or special law having like objects any or all money
or other property which it shall have accumulated for such objects,  but
the property so transferred shall be used exclusively for one or more of
the  purposes  mentioned  in such paragraph. A vote upon the question of
transferring the funds or property of  such  unincorporated  association
shall  be  had  only  at  a  meeting of such association called for that
purpose by the president or secretary or other managing officer thereof,
upon notice stating the object of the  meeting  of  at  least  ten  days
before  the time fixed for such meeting, served personally or by mail on
each member of the association within the United States whose  residence
or post office address is known.