Chapter 35

Section 1. In Suffolk county the treasurer of Boston, and in Nantucket county the treasurer of the town of Nantucket, shall be the county treasurer. In all other counties, a treasurer, who shall be a resident of the county, shall be elected as provided in section one hundred and …

Section 10. The treasurer shall collect, receive and safely keep all money belonging to the county, and disburse it according to law. He shall not make payments to the county commissioners or associate commissioners to be disbursed by them in behalf of the county. He shall pay al…

Section 10A. The county treasurer may disburse sums appropriated as matching funds for federally funded programs approved by the county commissioners.

Section 11. No payments, except payments of expenses in criminal prosecutions or for assignment of counsel by a court, in either case as authorized by law, or of the compensation or salaries of elected county officers other than a clerk of courts, a district attorney, a register …

Section 12. Original bills or vouchers for services and expenses incident to the sittings of the supreme judicial or superior court under section eight of chapter two hundred and thirteen or for court costs for indigent parties in the supreme judicial, appeals, or superior courts…

Section 13. Bills, vouchers and other evidences of county indebtedness shall be carefully filed and safely kept by the treasurer, so as to be accessible for future reference.

Section 14. The treasurer may, before payment of an account rendered against the county by a county officer, in writing require of him a written statement of the specific provision of law authorizing it, which shall be filed with the vouchers. The treasurer shall be personally li…

Section 15. The treasurer shall keep a full and accurate account stating when, from or to whom, and on what account money has been received or paid. Except in Suffolk county, his books shall be kept in the form prescribed by the director of accounts.

Section 16. The fiscal year of each county shall be the year beginning with July first and ending with the following June thirtieth; but the treasurer shall, until July tenth, enter in his books the items for the payment of bills incurred and salaries earned during the previous f…

Section 18. Sections ten, fourteen, twenty-five to twenty-nine, inclusive, and forty-four shall not apply to Suffolk county, nor shall sections fifteen, sixteen, twenty-five to thirty, inclusive, and thirty-two to thirty-four, inclusive, affect the special laws relative to Suffol…

Section 19. County salaries shall, except as otherwise provided, be payable in monthly installments on the first day of the month. No county treasurer shall pay any salary, wages or other compensation to any person in the service of a county unless the payroll, voucher or account…

Section 19A. In any county which accepts this section by vote of the county commissioners, advances of pay may be made to any county officer or employee in advance of his regular vacation to the extent of the pay to which he is about to be entitled during such vacation period und…

Section 19B. Whenever any officer or employee or former officer or employee of a county dies, and such county owes his estate any sum or sums by reason of the terms of his employment, the aggregate amount of which does not exceed twenty-five hundred dollars, and neither a duly ap…

Section 19C. Any county treasurer may deduct from the pension or retirement allowance of a retired person who was a member of such county retirement system, such sum as such retired person may specify in writing and shall transmit the same to a credit union designated by such ret…

Section 2. In any county, except Suffolk and Nantucket, the county treasurer may appoint an assistant in his office, who has served therein for at least one year, as assistant treasurer, removable at his pleasure. The assistant treasurer shall give bond, and the provisions of the…

Section 20. A county treasurer may prosecute suits upon bonds, notes and other securities given to or held by the county or its treasurer. He may also prosecute for injuries to the land, buildings or other property of his county, subject to section thirty-six of chapter forty-one…

Section 21. If a public officer, or other person, required by law to account with and pay money to a county treasurer, fails so to do for ten days after the time prescribed by law therefor, the treasurer shall notify the district attorney, who shall forthwith proceed to recover t…

Section 22. Except as otherwise provided, county treasurers, clerks of the courts, clerks of district courts, sheriffs and superintendents of jails and houses of correction, probation officers, registers of probate and insolvency and registers of deeds, having more money in their…

Section 22A. County treasurers, court clerks, sheriffs and superintendents of jails and houses of correction, probation officers, registers of probate and insolvency and registers of deeds shall not deposit any of the funds for which they are accountable in any national bank, tru…

Section 23. Money paid into the courts in any county shall, if possible be placed at interest by the clerks thereof, and the interest shall be available for the uses of the commonwealth unless the court directs it to be paid to the parties to the litigation in connection with whi…

Section 23A. County officers holding funds unclaimed after two years from the time of receipt thereof and not otherwise subject to statutory disposition shall pay over such funds to their county treasury for the use of the county; provided, that any person or persons establishing…

Section 24. If a time is fixed for payment of money due a county or a county retirement system, the debtor shall, if notified by the county treasurer at least thirty days before such time, pay interest thereon at the rate of eight per cent per annum from such fixed time until pay…

Section 25. Immediately after July tenth, the county treasurer shall annually prepare a report of the county receipts and expenditures for the preceding fiscal year, stated separately under the heads prescribed by the director of accounts for keeping the treasurer's books. Such s…

Section 26. Immediately after July tenth, the county commissioners shall annually prepare a report on county affairs, showing their acts during the preceding fiscal year, so as to give the taxpayers of the county a full and clear understanding of its affairs and of the objects an…

Section 26A. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections ten, fourteen, seventeen, twenty-five of chapter thirty-four or any other general or special law to the contrary, county capital facilities and capital facility projects, as defined by section thirty-nine A of chapter seven …

Section 27. The county commissioners shall at the expense of the county print the annual county report containing the report of the county commissioners, statements in tabulated form prepared by the treasurer under section twenty-five, the annual budget as approved by the advisor…

Section 27A. The county treasurer of each county shall act as the treasurer and custodian of the funds of every institution, organization, board, commission or other public body to the use of which funds of his county are contributed, provided that in case any such public body se…

Section 28. (a) The head of each department or institution, and each board or other agency whose activities are maintained or supported wholly or in part by county funds, shall submit to the county commissioners on or before October first a written statement of their estimates of…

Section 28B. (a) In every county other than Suffolk and Nantucket, there shall be an advisory board on county expenditures consisting of the city manager or his designee, who must be a member of the city council or board of alderman in a Plan D or Plan E city, or the mayor or his…

Section 3. County treasurers, except in Suffolk and Nantucket counties, shall be sworn before the county commissioners, who shall make a record thereof. Each treasurer shall give an annual bond to the county for the faithful performance of his official duties, in a form approved …

Section 30. The amount which the county commissioners of each county, except Suffolk and Nantucket, shall levy as the county tax shall be as voted by the county commissioners and approved by the advisory board on county expenditures, and as computed by adding together the amounts…

Section 31. The county commissioners shall apportion and assess all county taxes among and upon the several cities and towns according to the most recent equalization and apportionment reported by the commissioner of revenue to the general court pursuant to section ten C of chapt…

Section 32. Sums appropriated in appropriation acts for counties and in appropriation acts for the care, maintenance and repair of county hospitals shall be based upon detailed schedules approved by the county advisory boards, copies of which shall be deposited with the director …

Section 32A. In order to offset the anticipated costs for funding for the contributory retirement systems, upon the recommendation of the county retirement board advisory council, a county may appropriate in any year an amount not exceeding five per cent of the amount of county t…

Section 34. On and after July first in each year and before the regular appropriations have been made by the advisory board on county expenditures, the county commissioners and other officers authorized to incur liabilities payable by the county may incur liability for general ma…

Section 34A. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections thirty-two and thirty-four, county commissioners may in any fiscal year enter into agreements with cities and towns for the allocation of funds for highway maintenance and construction in accordance with the provisions of ch…

Section 35. The supreme judicial court, upon the suit of the attorney general or petition of one or more taxable inhabitants of a county, may in law or in equity enforce sections eleven, thirteen, fifteen, sixteen, twenty-five to thirty, inclusive, and thirty-two to thirty-four, …

Section 36. On or before the fifteenth day of each month the treasurer shall render to the county commissioners an account of all county receipts, cash on hand and expenditures for the prior month, and when approved and allowed by them, shall deliver it to their clerk.

Section 36A. For the purpose of providing funds for any county for any emergency purpose approved by the majority of the members of the municipal finance oversight board, hereinafter referred to as said board, such county may borrow money in such amount and for such period not ex…

Section 37. County commissioners may borrow money in anticipation of, and to be repaid from, the county tax of the current fiscal year. If said tax has been granted, such loans shall not exceed its amount; otherwise they shall not exceed the amount of the previous annual tax. The…

Section 37A. Counties shall not issue any bonds or notes payable on demand, and they shall provide for the payment of all debts, except those incurred in anticipation of revenue or in anticipation of reimbursement from cities and towns, by such annual payments as will extinguish …

Section 37B. The county treasurer of any county, except Suffolk and Nantucket, with the approval of the county commissioners thereof, may issue temporary notes of the county payable in not more than two years from their dates, in anticipation of the issue of serial bonds or notes…

Section 38. Before issuing notes or securities increasing county indebtedness, the county commissioners shall invite proposals for the purchase thereof by advertisements in two or more newspapers published in said county, if any, and by advertisements in at least three daily news…

Section 38A. Unless otherwise specifically provided, a provision in any act authorizing the county treasurer of any county to issue and sell bonds of the county shall authorize him, with the approval of the county commissioners, to issue and sell bonds subject to call for redempt…

Section 38B. Unless otherwise specifically provided, a provision in any act authorizing a county treasurer to issue and sell bonds or notes of the county shall authorize such treasurer, with the approval of the county commissioners, to issue and sell refunding bonds or notes for …

Section 39. All bonds, notes and other securities issued by any county after April twenty-second, nineteen hundred and twenty, shall bear such rate or rates of interest as the county treasurer, with the approval of the county commissioners, may fix, notwithstanding any general or…

Section 39A. The director shall furnish to the treasurer of every county forms for the issue of notes for money borrowed by the county. Every such note shall state the amount thereof, the date of issue, which shall be construed as the date from which interest is payable, the inte…

Section 39B. Whenever a county determines to borrow money otherwise than by the issue of bonds, the treasurer thereof shall make notes for the amount of the proposed loan, and shall use one or more, in serial order, of the forms provided for in section thirty-nine A, with the bla…

Section 39C. County notes, when issued for a serial loan, may be made payable to ''bearer'', and when so issued section thirty-nine B may be construed by the director as being properly complied with in so far as it relates to the proper filling in of the space provided for the na…

Section 39D. Whenever a note issued by a county is paid, the treasurer thereof shall immediately notify the director of such payment, stating the source from which such payment was made.