Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 44, § 31A (2026)

Section 31A. Every officer of any city except Boston having charge of, or jurisdiction over, any office, department or undertaking, requesting an appropriation shall, between November first and December first of each year, furnish the mayor and the city auditor, or officer having similar duties, on forms provided by the city auditor or officer having similar duties, and approved by the bureau of accounts in the department of corporations and taxation, detailed estimates of the full amounts deemed necessary for the next fiscal year for the ordinary maintenance of the office, department or undertaking under his charge or jurisdiction, and for expenditures other than the ordinary maintenance, with the amounts, if any, expended for similar purposes during the preceding fiscal year and during the first four months of the then current fiscal year, and an estimate of the amounts required to be expended for such purposes during the last eight months of the then current fiscal year, giving explanatory statements of any differences between the amount of any estimate for the next fiscal year and the amount expended or estimated to be required as aforesaid.

The information hereby required to be furnished shall set forth the number of permanent or temporary employees, or both, requested in each classification or rating in the next fiscal year and the number of permanent or temporary employees, or both, employed on October thirty-first of the then fiscal year, or the nearest week-end thereto, except laborers and persons performing the duties of laborers, with the annual, monthly, weekly or hourly compensation of such employees, and shall state whether such compensation is fixed by ordinance or otherwise and whether or not such employees are subject to chapter thirty-one.

The foregoing shall not prevent any city, upon recommendation of the mayor, from so setting forth the number of permanent or temporary laborers and persons performing the duties of laborers, or both such permanent and temporary laborers and persons, with the annual, monthly, weekly or hourly compensation of such employees.

The city auditor, or officer having similar duties, shall forthwith at the close of each calendar year furnish the mayor with a written report of the money received from estimated receipts applicable to the payment of expenditures of the first six months of the then current fiscal year, with an estimate of such receipts for the last six months of such year and for the next fiscal year.