Massachusetts Statutes

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…

Section 43. The director shall annually require the auditor or other accounting officer of each city and town to submit schedules to provide for uniform returns giving detailed statements of all receipts classified by sources, and all payments classified by objects, for its last …

Section 44. The commissioner of revenue may obtain and compile statistics about the financial affairs of cities and towns and other information of public interest pertaining to municipal affairs. Such statistics and other information the commissioner deems relevant may be publish…

Section 45. The director may require the attendance of witnesses and the production of books and documents, and may examine witnesses under oath in the same manner as in the superior court.

Section 46A. The director may, if conditions appear to the director to warrant it, review the accounts and financial transactions and affairs of a city or town, or of any department, board, commission or officer thereof. For the purpose of conducting the review, the director may …

Section 47. No further sinking funds for the payment of debt shall be established by any city, town or district, but cities and towns shall contribute to every sinking fund established prior to May twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and districts shall contribute to ev…

Section 48. The sinking fund commissioners shall have charge of all sinking funds intrusted to them by the city, town or district, and shall invest and reinvest, in the name of the board, all amounts contributed thereto and the income thereof as it accrues, in the particular bond…

Section 49. If, when bonds payable from the sinking fund become due, the sinking fund commissioners of a city hold any other bonds of the city not due and payable, which have been stamped as the property of said sinking fund and are not negotiable, they shall so certify to the ma…

Section 52. A county, city, town or district, or any domestic corporation, which shall have issued any bond, note or certificate of indebtedness payable to bearer, held by the sinking fund commissioners of any city, town or district, shall, at the request of such commissioners, i…

Section 53. All moneys received by any city, town or district officer or department, except as otherwise provided by special acts and except fees provided for by statute, shall be paid by such officers or department upon their receipt into the city, town or district treasury. Any…

Section 53A. An officer or department of any city or town, or of any regional school or other district, may accept grants or gifts of funds from the federal government and from a charitable foundation, a private corporation, or an individual, or from the commonwealth, a county or…

Section 53B. Any sums allotted and paid by the commonwealth to a city, town or district as a contribution towards the cost of a useful public works project, the state's share of the cost of which project was financed from the proceeds of a loan issued by such city, town or distri…

Section 53C. All money received by a city, town or district as compensation for work performed by one of its employees on an off-duty work detail which is related to such employee's regular employment or for special detail work performed by persons where such detail is not relate…

Section 53D. Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-three, any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section may establish in the city or town treasury a revolving fund which shall be kept separate and apart from all other monies by the treasurer and in which…

Section 53E. Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-three, a city or town which accepts the provisions of this section may specify when making an appropriation for the annual ordinary operating costs of any agency, board, department or office of said city or town that su…

Section 53F. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a treasurer or collector of a city, town or district is authorized to enter into written agreements for a period not to exceed three years, with banking institutions having their principal offices in the com…

Section 53G. Notwithstanding section 53, any city or town that provides by rules promulgated under section 9 or 12 of chapter 40A, section 21 of chapter 40B, section 81Q of chapter 41 or section 31 of chapter 111, or by rules promulgated by a conservation commission established b…

Section 53H. Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-three, any city, town, district, regional refuse disposal district or regional school district issuing bonds or notes may rebate to the federal government, without further appropriation, any amount deemed necessary by t…

Section 53I. A city or town, for the celebration of the two hundredth, two hundred and fiftieth, three hundredth and three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its settlement or incorporation, and for the celebration of any semicentennial anniversary occurring thereafter, or for o…

Section 53J. Notwithstanding sections 53 and 53F1/2, in any city, town or district that borrows money to pay for improvements for which betterments or special assessments are assessed, revenues from such betterments and assessments, including interest charged thereon, shall be re…

Section 53K. Notwithstanding section 53, any city or town may, upon the approval of its chief executive officer, establish in the treasury of the city or town a separate revenue account into which shall be deposited the monies received from: (i) a party under a host agreement or …

Section 54. (a) Trust funds, including cemetery perpetual care funds, unless otherwise provided or directed by the donor of the funds, shall be deposited in: a trust company, co-operative bank or savings bank, if the trust company or bank is organized or exists under the laws of …

Section 55. A city, town, or district or regional school district shall not at any one time have on deposit in a bank or trust company or banking company an amount exceeding sixty per cent of the capital and surplus of such bank or trust company or banking company, unless satisfa…

Section 55A. A city, town, district or regional school district officer receiving public money and lawfully and in good faith and in the exercise of due care depositing the public money in a trust company, co-operative bank or savings bank, if the trust company or bank is organiz…