Section 15B: Tax title collection revolving fund
Section 15B. (a) Notwithstanding sections 53 and 55 of chapter 44, a city or town that accepts this section may establish a tax title collection revolving fund pursuant to subsection (c) for 1 or more of the following officers: tax collector, treasurer and treasurer-collector. Such tax title collection revolving fund shall be accounted for separately from all other monies in the city or town and to which shall be credited any fees, charges and costs incurred by such officer under sections 15, 55, 62, 65, 68 or 79 and collected upon the redemption of tax titles and sales of real property acquired through foreclosures of tax titles. Expenditures may be made from such revolving fund without further appropriation, subject to this section; provided, however, that expenditures shall not be made or liabilities incurred from this revolving fund in excess of the balance of the fund nor in excess of the total authorized expenditures from this fund, nor shall any expenditures be made unless approved in accordance with sections 52 and 56 of chapter 41.
(b) Interest earned on a tax title collection revolving fund balance shall be treated as general fund revenue of the city or town. Expenditures from a tax title collection revolving fund authorized for the tax collector, treasurer or treasurer-collector shall be spent to pay expenses incurred by such officer under this chapter in connection with a tax taking or tax title foreclosure, including, but not limited to, fees and costs of recording or filing documents and instruments, searching and examining titles, mailing, publishing or advertising notices or documents, petitioning the land court, serving court filings and documents and paying legal fees.
(c) A city or town that accepts this section may establish a tax title collection revolving fund by: (i) by-law; (ii) ordinance; or (iii) a vote of the legislative body of a city or town taken upon the recommendation of the chief executive officer of a city or town or, in the case of a city with a Plan E form of government, the recommendation of the mayor or city manager. The establishment of such a fund shall be made not later than the beginning of the fiscal year in which the fund shall begin.
(d) The officer having charge of such tax title collection revolving fund shall annually report to the board of selectmen, the mayor of a city or city manager in a Plan E city or in any other city or town to the chief administrative or executive officer, the total amount of receipts and expenditures for the tax title collection revolving fund under its control for the prior fiscal year, by the date the by-law, ordinance or vote prescribes, together with other information as such by-law, ordinance or vote requires.
(e) Upon revocation of this section, or termination of any fund, the balance in the fund at the end of that fiscal year shall revert to surplus revenue.
(f) This section shall take effect in any municipality that accepts it by vote of the legislative body, subject to the charter of the municipality; provided, however, at any time after the expiration of 3 years from the date on which a municipality accepts this section, the municipality may revoke its acceptance in the same manner required for acceptance.
The director of accounts in the department of revenue may issue guidelines further regulating a tax title collection revolving fund established pursuant to this section.