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.
Last modified: February 3, 2019