Section 179 - Special district elections to vote upon appropriationsThe board of fire commissioners upon its own motion may submit, and upon petition, as hereinafter provided, shall cause to be submitted, at a special or annual fire district election, a proposition:
1.(a) To purchase fire apparatus and fire-fighting vehicles for the extinguishment or prevention of fires in said fire district, or motorized equipment for emergency relief squads or fire police squads.(b) To purchase or install an adequate fire alarm system for the fire district, or to make necessary additions thereto.(c) To lease, purchase, construct, reconstruct, alter, repair or equip suitable buildings for the preservation, protection and storing of vehicles, apparatus and equipment of the fire district and for the social and recreational use of the firefighters and residents of the district, and purchase the necessary lands therefor.(d) To expend in any one fiscal year, or to expend annually, an amount in excess of the amount authorized by subdivision eighteen of section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter, as amended from time to time, to be expended annually without the adoption of a proposition therefor for any of the purposes authorized by the provisions of this article. If the proposition authorizes an annual expenditure, it shall state a maximum amount which may be expended annually in excess of the amount authorized by subdivision eighteen of section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter, as amended from time to time, and such amount may not be exceeded thereafter unless authorized at a fire district election. If a proposition authorizes an annual expenditure, the authorization shall continue in effect until changed by vote of a district election.(e) To purchase permanent or temporary rights to take water from cisterns, wells and bodies of water and water-courses within the fire district for the purposes, and subject to the limitations, set forth in subdivision twelve-a of section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter.(f) To purchase or construct fire suction pools in bodies of water and water-courses, fire cisterns and fire wells, including necessary pipes, pumps, hydrants and other facilities in connection therewith, and to purchase and lease necessary real property and rights in land and water therefor, for the purposes, and subject to the limitations, set forth in subdivision twelve-a of section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter.2. Any sum authorized to be expended, pursuant to subdivision one of this section, shall be raised by tax and shall be spent only during the fiscal year for which such tax is to be levied but nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prevent the financing in whole or in part, pursuant to the local finance law, of expenditures pursuant to section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter. If the proposition is approved at an election held in any fiscal year after September twentieth, or after October twentieth in the case of fire districts located wholly within the county of Westchester, the proposition shall not become effective for the purpose of levying taxes until the first day of September of the fiscal year succeeding the fiscal year in which such proposition is approved.3. Such petition shall be signed, and acknowledged or proved in the same manner as a deed to be recorded, or authenticated in the manner provided by the election law for authentication of nominating petitions, by resident taxpayers owning taxable real property aggregating at least one-quarter of the assessed valuation of all the taxable real property of the district owned by resident taxpayers, as such valuations appear upon the latest completed assessment roll of said town. Notice of such special district election shall be given in the same manner as provided herein for annual district elections. The special election shall be held on a Tuesday, provided that such date is not a public holiday, and shall be conducted and scheduled in a manner that maximizes voter participation. The polls shall remain open for the receipt of ballots from six o'clock in the evening to nine o'clock in the evening and such additional consecutive hours prior thereto as the board of fire commissioners may determine. The secretary of the fire commissioners shall prepare the ballots which shall separately state and number each proposition to be voted upon.4. Every elector of the town who shall be a registered voter of the town and who shall have resided in the district for the period of thirty days next preceding a special or annual fire district election shall be qualified to vote upon such proposition.Amended by New York Laws 2018, ch. 476,Sec. 102, eff. 12/28/2018.