§ 97-mmmm. Veterans remembrance and cemetery maintenance and operation
fund. 1. There is hereby established in the joint custody of the
commissioner of taxation and finance and the comptroller, a special fund
to be known as the "veterans remembrance and cemetery maintenance and
operation fund".

2. Such fund shall consist of all revenues received by the department
of taxation and finance, pursuant to the provisions of sections two
hundred-nine-H and six hundred twenty-seven-a of the tax law, and all
other moneys appropriated, credited, or transferred thereto from any
other fund or source pursuant to law. Nothing in this section shall
prevent the state from soliciting and receiving grants, gifts or
bequests for the purposes of the fund as defined in this section and
depositing them into the fund according to law.

2-a. On or before the first day of February each year, the
commissioner of the New York state department of veterans' services
shall provide a written report to the temporary president of the senate,
speaker of the assembly, chair of the senate finance committee, chair of
the assembly ways and means committee, chair of the senate committee on
veterans, homeland security and military affairs, chair of the assembly
veterans' affairs committee, the state comptroller and the public. Such
report shall include how the monies of the fund were utilized during the
preceding calendar year, and shall include:

(i) the amount of money dispersed from the fund and the award process
used for such disbursements;

(ii) recipients of awards from the fund;

(iii) the amount awarded to each;

(iv) the purposes for which such awards were granted; and

(v) a summary financial plan for such monies which shall include
estimates of all receipts and all disbursements for the current and
succeeding fiscal years, along with the actual results from the prior
fiscal year.

3. On or before the first day of February of each calendar year, the
comptroller shall certify to the governor, the temporary president of
the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chair of the senate finance
committee and the chair of the assembly ways and means committee, the
amount of money deposited in the veterans remembrance and cemetery
maintenance and operation fund during the preceding calendar year as the
result of revenue derived pursuant to sections two hundred nine-H and
six hundred twenty-seven-a of the tax law, and from all grants, gifts
and bequests.

4. Moneys of the fund shall be expended only for the construction,
establishment, expansion, improvement, support, operation, maintenance
and the provision of perpetual care of state veterans cemeteries. As
used in this section, "the construction, establishment, expansion,
improvement, support, operation, maintenance and the provision of
perpetual care of state veterans cemeteries" shall include, but not be
limited to:

(a) The purchase, leasing or improvement of land for the purpose of
the construction, establishment, expansion, improvement, support,
operation, maintenance and the provision of perpetual care of state
veterans cemeteries;

(b) The purchase, leasing, construction or improvement of buildings or
infrastructure for the purpose of the construction, establishment,
expansion, improvement, support, operation, maintenance and the
provision of perpetual care of state veterans cemeteries;

(c) The purchase or leasing of equipment, tools, building materials,
landscaping materials, memorial headstones or markers, monuments,
columbarium niches, mausoleums, crypts, flags, flag poles, or related
remembrance or cemetery items for the construction, establishment,
expansion, improvement, support, operation, maintenance and the
provision of perpetual care of state veterans cemeteries;

(d) The payment of salaries, wages, benefits, professional service
fees, contract fees, association fees, or other charges necessary for
the construction, establishment, expansion, improvement, support,
operation, maintenance and the provision of perpetual care of state
veterans cemeteries; and/or

(e) The purchase of any other item or service necessary for the
construction, establishment, expansion, improvement, support, operation,
maintenance and the provision of perpetual care of a state veterans
cemetery.

5. Moneys shall be payable from the fund on the audit and warrant of
the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the commissioner
of the department of veterans' services.

6. Moneys in the veterans remembrance and cemetery maintenance and
operation fund shall be kept separate and shall not be commingled with
any other moneys in the custody of the commissioner of taxation and/or
the comptroller.