Wellesley Public Schools: Fiscal Year 2026 Budget
Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) Chapter 44, Section 10 Debt Limits
Except as otherwise provided by law, a city or town shall not authorize indebtedness to an amount exceeding 5 percent of the equalized valuation of the city or town. A city or town may authorize indebtedness in excess of 5 percent but not in excess of 10 percent, of the aforesaid equalized valuation; provided, however, that the amount of indebtedness so authorized shall be subject to the approval of the members of the municipal finance oversight board, which approval may be given either before or after such authorization. In determining the debt limit for Boston hereunder the provisions of chapter ninety-three of the acts of eighteen hundred and ninety-one and of section one of chapter one hundred and ninety-one of the acts of nineteen hundred and three shall apply. The debt limit for a district shall be based on an amount determined by applying to the equalized valuation of the town the same ratio which the assessors’ valuation of the taxable property of the district for the preceding fiscal year bears to the assessors’ valuation of the taxable property of the town for the preceding fiscal year. In the case of the district which is located in two or more towns, said debt limit shall be based on the total amount determined by applying to the equalized valuation of each of the towns in which any part of the district is located the same ratio which the assessors’ valuation of the taxable property of the district in the respective towns for the preceding fiscal year bears to the assessors’ valuation of the taxable property of said town for the preceding fiscal year. All authorized debts, except those expressly authorized by law to be incurred outside the debt limit, shall be reckoned in determining the limit of indebtedness under this section. 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 in cities, and each item voted by the town meeting in towns, being considered as a separate appropriation, except in cases of major disaster, including, but not limited to, flood, drought, fire, hurricane, earthquake, storm or other catastrophe, whether natural or otherwise, which poses an immediate threat to the health or safety of persons or property, and then only by a vote in a city of two-thirds of the members of the city council, and in a town by a majority vote of all the selectmen. Payments of liabilities incurred under authority of this section may be made, with the written approval of the director, from any available funds in the treasury, and the amounts of such liabilities incurred shall be reported by the auditor or accountant or other officer having similar duties, or by the treasurer if there be no such officer, to the assessors who shall include the amounts so reported in the aggregate appropriations assessed in the determination of the next subsequent annual tax rate, unless the city or town
Chapter 44, Section 31 Liabilities in Excess of Appropriations
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