2017 Massachusetts General Laws
PART I ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
TITLE XXII CORPORATIONS
Chapter 161B TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES, HIGHWAY SYSTEMS AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Section 10 Year with net cost of service; payment by state; financing; notes; assessments on cities and towns constituting authority; year with excess; disposition of funds
Section 10. If as of the last day of June in any year there was any net cost of service, an authority shall notify the state treasurer of the amount of such net cost of service and all other facts required by the treasurer in order to proceed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter to assess such net cost. Upon notification of the amount of such net cost the commonwealth shall pay over to the authority said amount.
The state treasurer may borrow, from time to time, on the credit of the commonwealth such amounts as may be necessary to make payments required of the commonwealth under this section or under section eleven and to pay any interest or other charges incurred in borrowing such money, and may issue notes of the commonwealth therefor, bearing interest payable at such times and at such rates as shall be fixed by him. Such interest and other charges shall be included in the assessments under this chapter in proportion to the respective assessments on the cities and towns constituting the authority for the net cost of service of the period to which any such payment relates. No note issued under this paragraph shall mature more than two years from its date but notes payable earlier may be refunded one or more times, provided that no refunding note shall mature more than two years from the date of the original loan being refunded. Such notes shall be issued for such maximum term of years, not exceeding two years, as the governor may recommend to the general court in accordance with Section three of Article LXII of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth.
Pending any payment from the state treasurer to the authority and at any other time when the authority in the opinion of the administrator has not sufficient cash to make the payments required of it in the course of its duties as such payments become due, the authority may temporarily borrow money and issue notes of the authority therefor.
If at any time any principal or interest is due or about to come due on any note issued by the authority pursuant to this section and funds to pay the same are not available, the administrator shall certify to the state treasurer the amount required to meet the obligation and the commonwealth shall thereupon pay over to the authority that amount. If the commonwealth shall not make the payment within a reasonable time, the authority or any holder of an unpaid note issued by the authority pursuant to this section, acting in the name and on behalf of the authority, shall have the right to require the commonwealth to pay the authority the amount remaining unpaid, which right shall be enforceable as a claim against the commonwealth. The authority or any holder of an unpaid note issued pursuant to this section may file a petition in the superior court to enforce a claim or intervene in any proceeding already commenced to enforce such a claim. Chapter 258 shall apply to the petition insofar as it relates to the enforcement of a claim against the commonwealth. Any holder of an unpaid note who shall have filed such a petition may apply for an order of the court requiring the authority to apply funds received by the authority on its claim against the commonwealth to the payment of the holder's unpaid note, and, if the court finds such amount to be due to the holder, shall issue the order.
All assessments made under this chapter shall be made as provided in section twenty of chapter fifty-nine.
If in any year the income received by the authority, including but not limited to revenues from leasing, advertising, parking, sale of capital assets, gifts and grants, exceeds the expenses incurred by the authority, including but not limited to expenses for wages, contracts for service by others, maintenance, debt service, taxes, rentals, payments to any governmental body and all other costs, the authority shall determine the amount of such excess. Such excess shall be placed in a reserve fund up to such amount as shall be determined by the authority with the approval of the advisory board. Any amount of excess not placed in such reserve fund shall be applied to reimbursing the commonwealth for any amounts which it may have paid under the provisions of this section, and the commonwealth shall thereupon distribute the amounts so received among the cities and towns constituting the authority up to the amounts which they were respectively assessed in the previous fiscal year. All remaining amounts in excess shall be so distributed up to the amounts assessed in each fiscal year immediately preceding, commencing with the most recent such year.
