Chapter 44

Section 1. In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Revenue'', receipts from (1) the exercise of governmental power of taxation and police control; (2) donations, gifts, grants and subvention for governmental…

Section 10. Except as otherwise provided by law, a city or town shall not authorize indebtedness to an amount exceeding 5 per cent of the equalized valuation of the city or town. A city or town may authorize indebtedness in excess of 5 per cent but not in excess of 10 per cent, o…

Section 11. Cities, towns and districts may pay or provide for the payment of any debt at an earlier period than is required by this chapter or may appropriate money for the purchase and cancellation of outstanding indebtedness, and shall not refund any debt except as provided in…

Section 14. Nothing in this chapter shall exempt a city or town from its liability to pay debts contracted for purposes for which it may lawfully expend money.

Section 15. Cities, towns and districts authorized by special acts to incur debt shall not be exempt from liability to pay debts contracted for the purposes for which they may lawfully expend money under such acts, notwithstanding that the amount of the annual payment and the per…

Section 16. A city, town or district which has authorized a debt to be incurred within the limitations, as to amount and time of payment, prescribed by this chapter may issue therefor bonds or notes, or, in the case of a city, certificates of indebtedness, all of which shall be p…

Section 16A. Any officer authorized to sign bonds or notes of a city, town or district may execute such bonds or notes or cause them to be executed by a facsimile signature in lieu of his manual signature, provided that at least one signature required or permitted to be placed th…

Section 16B. The engraved or printed facsimile of a city, town or district seal on a bond, note or certificate of indebtedness of such municipality shall have the same legal effect as though such seal were impressed thereon.

Section 17. If a city, town or district votes to issue bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness in accordance with law, the officers authorized to issue the same may, in the name of such city, town or district, make a temporary loan for a period of not more than 2 years in an…

Section 18. Notes issued under section four, five, five A, five B, six, six A or seventeen may be sold at such discount as the treasurer or other officer authorized to sell the same may, with the approval of the officer or officers whose counter-signature is required on said note…

Section 19. Cities, towns and districts shall not issue any notes payable on demand, but shall provide for the payment of all debts, except temporary loans incurred under sections 4, 6, 6A, 8C, and 17 or under section 3 of chapter 74 of the acts of 1945, by annual payments that w…

Section 19A. If it appears to the treasurer of a city, town or district, including a regional school district, that the city, town or district is, or is likely to be, unable to pay in whole or in part the principal or interest, or both, on any of its bonds, notes or certificates …

Section 2. Except as otherwise expressly permitted by law, cities, towns and districts shall incur debts only in the manner of voting and within the limitations as to amount and time of payment prescribed in this chapter; but this section shall not be construed as prohibiting any…

Section 20. The proceeds of any sale of bonds or notes shall be used only for the purposes specified in the authorization of the loan; provided, however, that such proceeds may also be used for costs of preparing, issuing and marketing the bonds or notes, except as otherwise auth…

Section 20A. Cities, towns and districts that have duly authorized the issuance of serial bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness may make expenditures for the purposes for which such serial bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness were authorized from any available reve…

Section 21. An officer of a city, town or district authorized to issue bonds or notes may provide that the bonds or notes of any issue may be called and redeemed, in whole or in part, prior to their maturity dates, at such price and under such terms and conditions as said officer…

Section 21A. The city council of a city, the board of selectmen of a town and the prudential committee, if any, otherwise, the commissioners of a district, may authorize and provide for the issuance of refunding bonds or notes of the city, town or district for the purpose of payi…

Section 21B. The city council of a city, and in the case of a city having a city manager and in the case of other cities, with the approval of the mayor the board of selectmen of a town, the school committee of a regional school district and the prudential committee, if any, othe…

Section 21C. A city, town or district may by a two-thirds vote of its legislative body, if recommended by its chief executive officer, authorize any department of the city, town or district to enter into a lease purchase financing agreement to acquire equipment or improve a capit…

Section 22. All bonds, notes and other securities issued by cities or towns shall bear such rate or rates of interest as may be fixed by the city or town treasurer, with the approval of the mayor or selectmen, notwithstanding any general or special provision of law enacted prior …

Section 22A. Bonds or notes issued by a city may be secured in whole or in part by insurance or by letters or lines of credit or other credit facilities upon a two-thirds vote of the city council with the approval of the mayor. Any such insurance, letter or line of credit or cred…

Section 22B. Any official statement prepared in connection with the sale of any bonds or notes of a city, town or district and all advertising of such bonds and notes, the interest on which is excludable from gross income for federal income tax purposes under the provisions of se…

Section 22C. Bonds or notes issued by a town or district may be secured in whole or in part by insurance or by letters or lines of credit or other credit facilities upon a two-thirds vote of the board of selectmen of the town or a two-thirds vote of the prudential committee, if a…

Section 23. The director shall furnish to the treasurer of every city, town and district, forms for the issue of notes for money borrowed by the city, town or district. Every such note shall contain blanks for insertion of the amount thereof, the date of issue, which shall be con…

Section 24. When a city, town or district votes to borrow money otherwise than by the issue of bonds, the treasurer thereof may make notes for the amount of the proposed loan, and may use one or more, in serial order, of the forms provided for in section twenty-three, with the bl…

Section 24A. City, town and district notes may be made payable to ''bearer'', and when so issued section twenty-four may be construed by the director as being properly complied with in so far as it relates to the proper filling in of any space provided for the name of the purchas…

Section 27. The certification of city, town or district notes by the director shall be prima facie evidence of the liability of such city, town or district therefor.

Section 27A. The provisions of sections twenty-three to twenty-seven, inclusive, shall be deemed to provide an additional and alternative means of carrying out the purposes thereof and shall not effect the power of cities, towns and districts to issue notes under and subject to o…

Section 28. Whenever a city, town or district votes to authorize the incurrence of indebtedness, the city, town or district clerk, as the case may be, shall, within forty-eight hours after the vote becomes effective, furnish to the director a copy thereof; and whenever a loan is …

Section 28A. The provisions of sections sixteen to twenty-eight, inclusive, shall, so far as apt, apply to regional school districts established under the provisions of section fifteen of chapter seventy-one, but the provisions of section sixteen relating to the countersigning of…

Section 28B. The provisions of sections sixteen to twenty-eight, inclusive, shall, so far as apt, apply to planning districts established under the provisions of chapter forty B, but the provisions of section sixteen relating to the countersigning of notes by a majority of the co…

Section 28C. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Chief executive officer'', the manager in any city having a manager and in any town having a city form of government, the mayor in an…

Section 3. The indebtedness of a city or town for a specific purpose shall be its net indebtedness, which shall be the total indebtedness for that purpose after deducting the amount of sinking funds applicable to the same. The indebtedness to which the debt limit imposed by secti…

Section 30. A city, except Boston, wherein the appropriation for any department is determined by law at a certain rate or percentage of the taxable valuation or the valuation of the taxable property therein, or however otherwise the same may be described, shall, in addition to th…

Section 31. No department financed by municipal revenue, or in whole or in part by taxation, of any city or town, except Boston, shall incur a liability in excess of the appropriation made for the use of such department, each item recommended by the mayor and voted by the council…

Section 31A. Every officer of any city except Boston having charge of, or jurisdiction over, any office, department or undertaking, requesting an appropriation shall, between November first and December first of each year, furnish the mayor and the city auditor, or officer having…

Section 31C. No contract for the construction, reconstruction, alteration, remodeling, repair or demolition of any public building or public work by any city or town costing more than two thousand dollars shall be deemed to have been made until the auditor or accountant or other …

Section 31D. Any city or town may incur liability and make expenditures in any fiscal year in excess of available appropriations for snow and ice removal, provided that such expenditures are approved by the chief administrative officer; provided, however, that the appropriation f…

Section 32. Within one hundred and seventy days after the annual organization of the city government in any city other than Boston, the mayor shall submit to the city council the annual budget which shall be a statement of the amounts recommended by him for proposed expenditures …

Section 33. In case of the failure of the mayor to transmit to the city council a written recommendation for an appropriation for any purpose not included in the annual budget, which is deemed necessary by the council, after having been so requested by vote thereof, said council,…

Section 33A. The annual budget shall include sums sufficient to pay the salaries of officers and employees fixed by law or by ordinance. Notwithstanding any contrary provision of any city charter, no ordinance providing for an increase in the salaries or wages of municipal office…

Section 33B. (a) On recommendation of the mayor, the city council may, by majority vote, transfer any amount appropriated for the use of any department to another appropriation for the same department. In addition, the city council may, by majority vote, on recommendation of the …

Section 35. Cities, towns, districts, and regional school districts shall conduct periodic audits of their accounts, according to any standards established by the director under section 38, and shall engage for that purpose a professional auditing firm or other independent accoun…

Section 38. The director shall make, and from time to time revise, such reasonable rules, regulations and guidelines as may be necessary to establish minimum standards and methods of municipal and district accounting systems as the director determines are most effective in securi…

Section 39. Upon the completion of an audit under section 35, the firm or person selected by the city, town or district to conduct said audit shall render a report to the chief executive officer of the city or town, or other board or officer required by charter, or the prudential…

Section 4. Cities, towns and districts may incur debt in any fiscal year for temporary loans in anticipation of the revenue of the fiscal year in which the debt is incurred, and may issue notes therefor to an amount which for cities and towns shall not exceed in the aggregate the…

Section 40. For the purpose of conducting audits of the accounts of all cities and towns annually, and of the accounts of each district and regional school district biennially or annually as determined by the prudential committee, if any, otherwise the commissioners, or the regio…

Section 41. Whenever it appears to the director that a city, town or district has failed to meet the minimum standards and methods of municipal and district accounting prescribed under section 38, or to provide the information required under section 43 or other statute, the direc…

Section 42. Whenever a city, town or district causes an audit of its accounts or the accounts of separate departments to be made by a firm or person of its own selection, the city, town or district clerk shall immediately, upon the employment of such firm or person, file the name…

Section 42A. The department of the state auditor, in accordance with section 12 of chapter 11, shall establish a 2 year pilot program for the audit of the accounts, programs, activities, and other public functions of a particular city, town, county, district, or regional school d…