Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 35 - County Treasurers, State Supervision of County Accounts and County Finances
Section 28 - Estimates of County Receipts and Expenditures; Preparation; Recordation

Section 28. (a) The head of each department or institution, and each board or other agency whose activities are maintained or supported wholly or in part by county funds, shall submit to the county commissioners on or before October first a written statement of their estimates of revenues and expenditures for the ensuing fiscal year, including number and cost of personnel, quantities and estimated cost of supplies and equipment and any other proposed expenditures, in sufficient detail to enable said commissioners to explain any increase or decrease as compared with the appropriation of the then current fiscal year. In such statement any proposed contract or any project involving the estimated expenditure of a sum in excess of one thousand dollars shall be set forth separately. Estimates shall be submitted in such form and shall contain such additional information as the county commissioners shall prescribe. In the event that such head of a department or institution, or such board or other agency fails to submit an estimate by the date specified, the county commissioners forthwith shall prepare and estimate for such department, institution, board or other agency.
(b) The county commissioners shall annually prepare an itemized budget containing estimates of county revenues and expenditures for the ensuing fiscal year in the form prescribed by the director of accounts and upon blanks furnished by him, including estimates for construction and repair of county buildings and for effecting insurance providing indemnity for or protection to the officers and employees of the county against loss by reason of their liability to pay damages to others for bodily injuries, including death at any time resulting therefrom, or for damage to property, caused by the operation, within the scope of their official duties or employment, of motor or other vehicles owned by the county, to an amount not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars on account of injury to or death of one person, or not exceeding one million dollars for any one accident, and not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars on account of damage to property, or for providing indemnity or protection as aforesaid without insurance, with a statement of the corresponding appropriations for the then current fiscal year, and expenditures for each of the three preceding fiscal years, explaining any difference between the amount of any such estimate and the latest appropriation for the same purpose, and citing the laws relating thereto. The clerk of the county commissioners shall record the foregoing in a book kept therefor, and, on or before November first, shall send sufficient copies thereof, by him attested and signed by the chairman, to the county treasurer, to the members of the advisory board on county expenditures, to the director of accounts and to the selectmen of each town and the mayor of each city in the county.
(c) The county commissioners of each county having a tuberculosis hospital established under sections seventy-eight to ninety, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and eleven, shall, in each year, prepare an itemized budget containing estimates of receipts of said hospital and of the cost of its care, maintenance and repair for the ensuing fiscal year in the form prescribed by the director of accounts and upon blanks furnished by him.
(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, and unless otherwise specifically provided for by statute, county capital facility projects, as defined by section thirty-nine A of chapter seven, shall be subject to the provisions of sections seven A, seven B, seven C, and seven D of chapter twenty-nine and any other provisions of chapter twenty-nine applicable to capital facility projects to the same degrees and extent as other state agencies, as defined by section thirty-nine A of said chapter seven.
(e) Prior to the submission by the clerk of the county commissioners of any county to the advisory board on county expenditures, of any proposed expenditures including proposed expenditures from a general revenue sharing allotment from the federal government, said county commissioners shall hold a public hearing to determine priority needs in said county.
Said county commissioners shall cause notice of said hearing to be posted in each city and town hall within the county at least fourteen calendar days prior to the hearing and shall also cause notice thereof to be published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the county at least fourteen calendar days prior to said hearing. Notice of the hearing date and amount of revenue sharing money to be expended shall be mailed by the county commissioners to the selectmen of each town and mayor of each city in the county at least fourteen calendar days prior to the hearing.

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