(1) Fifty voters of a city may present to the clerk of the city a petition asking that a tax be levied for the establishment of a free public library in that city and specifying a rate of taxation not to exceed 2 mills on the dollar. The tax may be of unlimited duration or the petition may specify the number of years for which the tax shall be levied. The clerk, in the next legal notice of the regular election in that city, shall give notice that at the election every voter may vote upon the proposition. The notice shall specify the rate and any duration of taxation mentioned in the petition.

    (2) If a majority of all the votes cast in the city upon the proposition is for the tax for a free public library, the tax specified in the notice shall be levied and collected in the same manner as other general taxes of that city for the period, if any, specified in the petition, and shall be placed in a fund to be known as the “library fund”.

    (3) If the free public library is established under this section, and a governing board is elected and qualified as provided in section 11, the board, on or before the first Monday in September in each year, shall prepare an estimate of the amount of money necessary for the support and maintenance of the free public library for the ensuing year, not to exceed 2 mills on the dollar of the taxable property of the city. Unless any period specified in the petition for the levy of the tax has expired, the governing board shall report the estimate to the legislative body of the city. The legislative body shall raise by tax upon the taxable property in the city the amount of the estimate in the same manner that other general taxes are raised in the city.

    (4) A tax levied under this section shall be in addition to any tax limitation imposed by a city charter.