Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title VII Chapter 44
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 44, § 53 (2026)

City, town or district funds; use and disposition

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 53. All moneys received by any city, town or district officer or department, except as otherwise provided by special acts and except fees provided for by statute, shall be paid by such officers or department upon their receipt into the city, town or district treasury. Any sums so paid into the city, town or district treasury shall not later be used by such officer or department without specific appropriation thereof; provided, however, that (1) sums allotted by the commonwealth or a county to cities or towns for highway purposes and sums allotted by the commonwealth to cities, towns or districts for water pollution control purposes shall be available therefor without specific appropriation, but shall be used only for the purposes for which the allotment is made or to meet temporary loans issued in anticipation of such allotment as provided in section six or six A, (2) sums not in excess of $150,000 to be recovered under the terms of a fire or physical damage insurance policy or received in restitution for damage done to such city, town or district property may, with the approval of the chief executive officer, be spent by the officer or department having control of the city, town or district property for the restoration or replacement of such property without specific appropriation during the fiscal year in which the damage occurs or within 120 days after the end of said fiscal year, whichever is later; provided, however, that any insurance or restitution received shall be applied to finance the restoration or replacement and any such expenditures outstanding at the close of the fiscal year after the fiscal year in which the damage occurred shall be reported by the auditor or accountant of the city, town or district, or other officer having similar duties, or by the treasurer if there is no such officer, to the assessors, who shall include the amount so reported in the determination of the next annual tax rate, unless the city, town or district has otherwise made provision therefor, (3) sums recovered from pupils in the public schools for loss of or damage to school books, materials, electronic devices or other learning aids provided by the school committee, or paid by pupils for materials used in the industrial arts projects, may be used by the school committee for the restoration or replacement of such books or materials without specific appropriation, (4) non-recurring, unanticipated sums received by multiple cities, towns or districts and not otherwise provided for by general or special law, may, upon the approval of the director of accounts, be expended at the direction of the chief executive officer without further appropriation only for the singular purpose for which the monies were received, and (5) non-recurring, unanticipated sums received by multiple cities, towns or districts and not otherwise provided for by a general or special law, may, upon the approval of the director of accounts, be deposited in a separate revenue account established in the treasury and expended, with appropriation, only for the purposes for which the monies were received.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 6 cases, 1985–2000 · leading case: Pratt v. City of Boston, 483 N.E.2d 812 (Mass. 1985).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Pratt v. City of Boston, 483 N.E.2d 812 (Mass. 1985). · cites it 2× “Moreover, quite apart from the involvement of the corporation, on a different record in another year, these plaintiffs or other taxpayers may be able to demonstrate that the city is "about to ... expend money" for an illegal purpose.”
TBI, Inc. v. Bd. of Health, 725 N.E.2d 188 (Mass. 2000). “30(l)(d) permits the board to assess the supplemental fee under G. L. c. 44, § 53. The regulation provides that the DEP regulations do not modify the right of local boards to assess or collect fees pursuant to other statutes or municipal ordinances.”
Kowalczyk v. Town of Blackstone, 717 N.E.2d 277 (Mass. App. Ct. 1999). “60, § 2, or in § 15 of the same chapter, or in G. L. c. 44, § 53, “specifies” that a collector of taxes is entitled to keep as compensation the fees charged for tax collection services.”
Kowalczyk v. Dubois, 8 Mass. L. Rptr. 54 (Mass. Super. Ct. 1997). · cites it 3× “Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, §53 Finally, the court turns to G.L.c. 44, §53, entitled “City, town or district funds: use and disposition.”
Devlin v. Sch. Comm. of City of Chelsea, 2 Mass. L. Rptr. 355 (Mass. Super. Ct. 1994). “Under Section 5, any expenditure by BU of public funds received by the city in accordance with G.L.c. 44, §§53 and 54 is subject to scrutiny by the Inspector General under G.”
V.C.I. Int'l, Inc. v. Wilde, 5 Mass. L. Rptr. 97 (Mass. Super. Ct. 1996). “41, §69B, for payment of fees and their receipt and appropriation by the water works, specifically apply to such water works the requirements that generally apply to all municipal bodies under G.L.c. 44, §53. Therefore, whether or not the DEP or DOR opinions should be given the…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.