51-501. Museums; local governmental subdivisions; establishment; tax levy; limitation; authorization by election; discontinuance.

(1) The city council of any city, the board of trustees of any incorporated village, the county board of any county, and the electors of any township at their annual town meeting shall have the power to establish a museum for the use of the inhabitants of such city, village, county, or township or to contract for the use of a museum already established and may levy a tax of not more than seven cents on each one hundred dollars upon the taxable value of all the taxable property within the city, village, township, or county to be levied each year and collected in like manner as other taxes in such city, village, county, or township and to be known as the museum fund. The levy shall be part of the levy of the city, village, county, or township and shall be subject to sections 77-3442 and 77-3443.

(2) When the county board makes a levy for a county museum, it shall omit from the levy of the museum tax all property within the limits of any city, village, or township in such county which already maintains a museum by public tax. Before establishing such county museum or levying such tax, the county board shall submit the question to the voters of the county and a majority of the voters voting thereon shall have authorized the establishment of such county museum and the levying of the tax. Such questions shall be submitted at a general election only, and when so submitted and carried, it is hereby made the duty of the county board to include the county museum in its next succeeding estimate and levy.

(3) The electors of the county may discontinue such levy by vote of the people in the same manner that the initial levy was authorized, except that the proposition to discontinue such levy shall be placed on the ballot by the county board of such county at a general election only when requested to do so by a petition signed by at least twenty percent of the legal voters of such county based on the total vote cast for Governor at the last general election in the county.

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The county board was permitted under this section to provide for the establishment of a museum to be constructed by public-donated funds and to levy a tax for the maintenance of the museum thereafter. Geer-Melkus Constr. Co., Inc. v. Hall County Museum Board, 186 Neb. 615, 185 N.W.2d 671 (1971).