A housing authority may compensate its members for each day spent in the performance of their duties and for such other services as they may render to the authority in connection with projects commenced prior to July first, nineteen hundred and sixty-five. Such compensation shall not exceed fifty dollars a day for the chairman and forty dollars a day for a member other than the chairman, provided that the total sum paid to all the members in any one month or year shall not exceed two per centum of the gross income of the housing authority during such month or year, respectively, nor shall the total sum paid in any year exceed twelve thousand five hundred dollars in the case of the chairman or ten thousand dollars in the case of a member other than the chairman. Such compensation shall be allocated by the housing authority among its various projects commenced prior to July first, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, in such manner and amounts as it deems proper. Members of a housing authority shall be allowed, or be reimbursed for, all expenses properly incurred by them within or without the city or town in the discharge of their duties. Such expenses shall be allocated by the housing authority among its various projects in such manner and amounts as it deems proper.