Section 53E: Agencies, boards, etc.; annual operating costs; offset by estimated receipts of user fees
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 such costs may be offset, in part or in the aggregate, by the estimated receipts from the fees charged to users of the services provided by such agency, board, department or office.
The use of such fees shall be limited to an amount not to exceed the actual amounts received during the previous fiscal year or such other estimated amount as may be approved, in advance of appropriation, by the commissioner of revenue or his designee, and which is based upon adequate documented material supporting such estimated amounts.
Receipts so allocated shall be deposited in a special account by the city or town treasurer or otherwise specifically identified and may be expended for the purpose allocated without further appropriation. Any balance in such accounts at the end of the fiscal year shall be deposited into the general treasury of the city or town.
Any deficit resulting from any city or town acting under the provisions of this section shall be reported by the auditor, accountant or other officer having similar duties, or by the treasurer if there be no such officer, to the assessors, who shall include the amount so reported in the aggregate appropriations to be assessed in the next subsequent annual tax levy, unless the city or town has provided funds to eliminate such deficit. Any deficit so incurred must be raised by taxation and shall be subject to all applicable provisions of chapter fifty-nine.
Each agency, board, department or office shall prepare an annual report of the change in cash balances in such entity which shall detail the cash receipts and disbursements for the year and shall be submitted to the mayor, city council, city manager, board of selectmen or town manager for their review and a copy of said report shall be submitted to the director of the bureau of accounts. Such report shall be prepared and submitted within forty-five days after the close of the fiscal year.
All such sums, so allocated, shall be treated as amounts voted from available funds for the purpose of deduction in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-three of chapter fifty-nine. All amounts voted from available funds shall be itemized in a schedule, on a form approved by the commissioner of revenue, prepared by the city or town clerk and included with the submission for approval of the tax rate by the commissioner of revenue as provided in section twenty-three of chapter fifty-nine. The assessors shall further attest, on said schedule, that the receipts itemized therein have not been included in any other deduction from the gross amounts to be raised.