§ 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".

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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.