Penalty. Time of taking effect. Certification of certain town notes. This act not to apply to city of Boston, except, etc. Terms defined. Indebtedness may be incurred for with him by said director for the certification of any note which may be cancelled before money is obtained thereon. SECTION 5. A town treasurer who violates any provision of this act shall be liable to a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars. SECTION 6. This act shall take effect on the first day of January in the year nineteen hundred and eleven. [Approved June 10, 1910. Acts of 1913, Chapter 416. An Act relative to the Certification of Town Notes by the Director of the Bureau of Statistics. SECTION 1. The director of the bureau of statistics, for the purpose of certifying a note under the provisions of chapter six hundred and sixteen of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and ten and amendments thereof, may construe a note to have been duly issued if made in accordance with the provisions of said act and amendments thereof, or if made in accordance with any law which does not require a vote of the town, and he may certify any such note on any date not earlier than three days prior to the date of issue as it appears on the note. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved March 29, 1913. Acts of 1913, Chapter 719, §§ 1, 2, 3, 6, 7–16, 20–24. SECTION 1. The provisions of this act shall not, except as is hereinafter specified, apply to the city of Boston, but said city shall remain subject to the provisions of all general and special laws applicable to it. 66 SECTION 2. In this act, unless the context otherwise requires: revenue" means receipts from taxes and income from all other sources; "majority vote" and "two thirds vote", as applied to towns or districts, mean the vote of a majority or two thirds of the voters present and voting at a [town] meeting duly called, and, as applied to cities, mean the vote taken by yeas and nays of a majority or of two thirds, as the case may require, of all the members of each branch of the city government, where there are two branches, or of all the members where there is a single branch of the city government, or of a majority or two thirds of the commissioners, where the city government consists of a commission; and in every case subject to the approval of the mayor, where such approval is required by the charter of the city. SECTION 3. Cities and towns, and fire, water [and watch] light, watch, and improvement districts, so-called, may, by a majority vote, loans in of revenue, Amended. incur debt for temporary loans in anticipation of the revenue of temporary the financial year in which the debt is incurred and expressly made anticipation payable therefrom by such vote, and may issue a note or notes etc. therefor to an amount [not exceeding] which for cities and towns 1914, 143, § 2. shall not exceed in the aggregate the total tax levy of the preceding financial year, together with the bank, corporation and street railway tax received during the preceding financial year, exclusive of special or additional assessments or revenue from any other source except payments made by the commonwealth in lieu of taxes on account of property taken for institutions or for metropolitan district purposes. Such notes shall be payable, and shall be paid, not Payment of later than one year from the date thereof, and shall not be renewed or paid by the issue of new notes, except as is provided in section nine. notes. Purposes for and towns which cities may incur indebtedness outside the SECTION 6. Cities and towns may incur debt, outside the limit of indebtedness prescribed in this act, for the following purposes and payable within the periods hereinafter specified: (1) For temporary loans under the provisions of sections three, debt limit. four, or nine, one year. (4) For establishing, purchasing, extending or enlarging a gas or electric lighting plant within the limits of a city or town, twenty years; but the indebtedness so incurred shall be limited to an amount not exceeding in a town five per cent and in a city two and one half per cent of the last preceding assessed valuation of such town or city. herein Amended. curred to be (5) Debts for all of the purposes mentioned in this section shall be Debts to be payable within the periods above specified from the date of the first payable as issue of bonds or notes on account thereof, and may be incurred in specified. accordance with the provisions of existing law, except in so far as 1914, 143, § 3. the same are inconsistent with the provisions of this act: provided, however, that debts mentioned in clause (1) of this section shall be payable as provided in sections three, four and nine of this act. All Other debts inother debts hereafter incurred by a city or town shall be reckoned in determining its limit of indebtedness, and debts authorized under the provisions of this section, except for temporary loans, may be incurred only by a vote of two thirds of the voters present and voting, or of two thirds of all the members of a city council or other governing body, taken by yeas and nays, and subject to the approval of the mayor, if such approval is required by the charter of the city. reckoned in edness, etc. limit of indebt Proceeds of sale of bonds to be used only for purposes specified, etc. Proviso. Issue of bonds, Proviso. Duties of certain city and town officers. Temporary loan may be made for period not exceeding one year, etc. Amended. 1914, 143, § 5. SECTION 7. Cities and towns shall not incur debt for any purpose or for any period of time other than as specified in this act or in chapter six hundred and thirty-four of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and thirteen, and the proceeds of any sale of bonds or notes, except premiums, shall be used only for the purposes specified in the authorization of the loan: provided, however, that transfers of unexpended amounts may be made to other accounts to be used for similar purposes. SECTION 8. A city or town, which has authorized a debt to be incurred within the limitations as to amount and time of payment prescribed by this act may issue bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness therefor, properly denominated on the face thereof, signed by its treasurer, and, if issued by a city, countersigned by its mayor, unless its charter otherwise provides, or if issued by a town, countersigned by a majority of its selectmen, and by any other officers, boards or commissioners of a city or town whose countersignatures may be required by law, at such rate of interest as may be deemed proper, and such city or town may, except as provided in section [nine] ten, sell such bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness at not less than par, at public or private sale, or may use the same in payment of such debts: provided, however, that if the amount of the annual payment and the period of the loan are not specified by the vote authorizing the debt to be incurred, the officers authorized to issue bonds or notes therefor may issue the same subject to the provisions and limitations of this act. The auditor or similar officer in cities, and the town accountant in towns having such an officer, and the treasurer in all other towns shall, not later than May first of each year, notify the board of assessors in writing of the amount of debt falling due during the current financial year, the sinking fund requirements, if any, and what provision has been made for meeting such requirements; and the board shall make such provision for meeting said debt and sinking fund requirements in the tax levy of that year as in its judgment may be necessary. SECTION 9. If a city, [or town] town or district votes to issue bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness in accordance with the provisions of law, the officers authorized to issue the same may, in the name of such city, [or town] town or district make a temporary loan for a period of not more than one year in anticipation of the money to be derived from the sale of such bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness and may issue notes therefor; but the time within which such securities shall become due and payable shall not be extended by reason of the making of such temporary loan beyond the time fixed in the vote authorizing the issue of such bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness; and notes issued under the provisions of this section and of sections three and four of this act for a shorter period than one year may be refunded by the issue of other notes maturing within the required period: provided, however, that the period from the date of issue of the original loan and the date of maturity of the refunding loan shall be not more than one year; and provided, further, that no notes shall be refunded under the provisions of this section except under the authority of such vote as is required for the original borrowing. notes. SECTION 10. Notes issued under the provisions of sections three, Discount of four and nine of this act 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 notes, deem proper; the discount to be treated as interest paid in advance. incur for water not to exceed certain per valuation of cent. of taxable prop erty. SECTION 11. A city which, at a meeting of its voters held for City may that purpose, has accepted, by a vote of two thirds of the legal indebtedness voters present and voting thereon, any act to supply the city with supply purwater, may, by a yea and nay vote of two thirds of all the members poses. of each branch of the city council or other governing body, with the approval of the mayor when the charter of the city requires such approval, incur debt and issue bonds or notes for the purposes and to the extent authorized by such act, in the manner provided in, and subject to the provisions of, section fourteen of this act. SECTION 12. Except as otherwise authorized by section six of Indebtedness this act or by chapter six hundred and thirty-four of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and thirteen, a city shall not authorize indebtedness to an amount exceeding two and one half per cent, and a town shall not authorize indebtedness to an amount exceeding three per cent, on the average of the assessors' valuations of the taxable property for the three preceding calendar years, the valuations being first reduced by the amount of all abatements allowed thereon previous to the last day of December of the preceding calendar year. SECTION 13. No further sinking funds for the payment of debt shall be established by any city or town, but cities and towns shall contribute to every sinking fund established prior to the passage of this act until such sinking fund, with its accumulations, shall be sufficient to extinguish at maturity the debt for which it was established, and all provisions of law relating to the manner of establishing, administering and investing sinking funds which may be in force at the time of the passage of this act shall remain in force with respect to all sinking funds established prior thereto. No further sinking funds to be established, etc. SECTION 14. Cities and towns shall not issue any notes payable Provision for payment of on demand, and they shall provide for the payment of all debts, debts. except those incurred under the provisions of sections three, four Earlier payment of debts, etc. Liability not to be incurred in excess of appropriation, etc. Annual budget of current expenses, when and how submitted by mayors in cities, etc. and nine, by such annual payments as will extinguish the same at maturity, and so that the first of such annual payments on account of any loan shall be made not later than one year after the date of the bonds or notes issued therefor, and so that the amount of such annual payments in any year on account of such debts, so far as issued, shall not be less than the amount of principal payable in any subsequent year, and such annual amount, together with the interest on all debts, shall, without further vote, be assessed until the debt is extinguished. SECTION 15. Cities and towns may pay or provide for the payment of any debt, whether incurred before or after the passage of this act, at an earlier period than is required by the provisions of this act, and shall not refund any debt except as provided in section nine of this act; and cities and towns may, for the purpose of reducing the whole debt for the redemption of which sinking funds have been established prior to the passage of this act, or of reducing the amount to be raised by taxation for such bonds, add to any such sinking fund the excess of any appropriation over the amount required for the purpose thereof, or add to such funds any sums derived from taxation or from other sources not required by law to be expended otherwise. SECTION 16. No department of any city or town shall incur liability in excess of the appropriation made for the use of such department, except in cases of extreme emergency involving the health or safety of persons or property, and then only by a vote in cities of two thirds of the members of the city council, and in a commission form of government by a vote of two thirds of the members of the commission, and in a town by a vote of two thirds of the selectmen. SECTION 20. Within sixty days after the annual organization of the city government, the mayor of every city, except Boston and those cities having the commission form of government, so-called, shall submit to the city council the annual budget of the current expenses of the city, and the mayor may submit thereafter supplementary budgets until such time as the tax rate for the year shall be fixed. The budget shall consist of an itemized and detailed statement of the money required, and the city council shall make such appropriations in detail, clearly specifying the amount to be expended for each particular purpose. The city council may reduce or reject any item, but, without the approval of the mayor, shall not increase any item in nor the total of a budget, nor add any item thereto. It shall be the duty of the city officials, when so requested by the mayor, to submit to him forthwith in such detail as he may require estimates for the next fiscal year of the expendi |