§ 259. Library taxes. 1. a. Taxes, in addition to those otherwise
authorized, may be voted for library purposes by any authority named in
section two hundred fifty-five of this part and shall, unless otherwise
directed by such vote, be considered as annual appropriations therefor
until changed by further vote and shall be levied and collected yearly,
or as directed, as are other general taxes. In the case of a school
district the appropriation for library purposes shall be submitted to
the voters of the district as proposed by the library board of trustees
in a separate resolution and shall not be submitted as a part of the
appropriation of the necessary funds to meet the estimated expenditures
of the school district. All moneys received from taxes or other public
sources for library purposes shall be kept as a separate library fund by
the treasurer of the municipality or district making the appropriation
and shall be expended only under direction of the library trustees on
properly authenticated vouchers, except that money received from taxes
and other public sources for the support of a public library or a free
association library or a cooperative library system shall be paid over
to the treasurer of such library or cooperative library system upon the
written demand of its trustees. All such moneys paid over to a public
library treasurer shall be deposited and secured in the manner provided
by section ten of the general municipal law and the library trustees or
the library treasurer, if the trustees shall delegate such duty to him,
may invest such moneys in the manner provided by section eleven of such
law.

b. (1) Except as provided in subparagraph two of this paragraph,
whenever twenty-five qualified voters of a municipality shall so
petition and the library board of trustees shall endorse, the question
of establishing or increasing the amount of funding of the annual
contribution for the operating budget of a registered public or free
association library by such municipality to a sum specified in said
petition, shall be voted on at the next general election of such
municipality, provided that due public notice of the proposed action
shall have been given. An increase in library funding provided pursuant
to this paragraph shall not apply to a municipal budget adopted prior to
the date of such election.

(2) Solely for the purposes of this paragraph, the term "municipality"
shall:

(i) not include a city with a population of one million or more,

(ii) mean only a county when the public libraries located in such
county are members of a federated public library system whose central
library is located in a city of more than three hundred thousand
inhabitants.

2. In the case of a joint public library authorized to be established
by two or more municipalities or districts pursuant to section two
hundred fifty-five of this chapter, the governing bodies of the
participating municipalities and districts shall enter into an agreement
designating the treasurer of one of the participating municipalities or
districts to be the treasurer of the joint public library. The agreement
shall be for a period of not less than one year nor more than five years
and the state comptroller and the commissioner of education shall be
notified in writing by the board of library trustees of such agreement
and designation.

The municipality or district whose treasurer is designated to serve as
treasurer of a joint public library may be compensated for the services
rendered by such official to the library. The amount to be paid for such
services shall be determined by agreement between the governing body of
the municipality or district and the board of library trustees, and
shall be paid at least annually from the public library fund.

3. The treasurer of a joint public library shall maintain the separate
library fund required by subdivision one of this section and shall
credit to such fund all moneys received. The state aid apportioned to a
joint public library, amounts appropriated by participants toward its
support and all amounts received from other sources shall be paid to the
library treasurer. Appropriations for the library made by the
participating municipalities or districts shall be paid in full to the
library treasurer within sixty days after the beginning of the library
fiscal year.

Disbursements for purposes of a joint public library shall be made by
the treasurer in the manner prescribed in subdivision one of this
section.

Within thirty days after the close of the fiscal year the treasurer
shall make an annual report of the receipt and disbursement of library
moneys to the board of library trustees and to the governing body of
each of the participating municipalities or districts.

4. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivisions one and three of
this section, the library trustees may by resolution establish a petty
cash fund, in such amount as they shall determine, for any employee who
has supervision of any library or branch thereof. Expenditures from such
fund may be made by such employee in advance of audit by the library
trustees, but only after the submission of properly itemized and
authenticated vouchers for materials, supplies or services furnished to
the library or branch thereof and upon terms calling for payment to the
vendor upon the delivery of any such materials or supplies or the
rendering of any such services. At each meeting of the library trustees
a list of all expenditures made from such fund since the last meeting of
the trustees, together with the vouchers supporting such expenditures,
shall be presented by such employee to the library trustees. The
trustees shall direct the treasurer to reimburse such petty cash fund in
an amount equal to the total of such bills which the trustees shall so
allow. Any of such bills or any portion of such bills which the library
trustees shall refuse to allow shall be the personal liability of such
employee and he shall promptly reimburse such petty cash fund in the
amount of such disallowances. If such reimbursement has not been made by
the time of the first payment of salary to such employee after the
action of the library trustees in disallowing an amount so expended,
such amount shall be withheld from such salary payment to such employee
and, if necessary, subsequent salary payments and paid into such petty
cash fund until an amount so disallowed by the library trustees has been
repaid in full to the petty cash fund.