Massachusetts General Laws ch. 10 sec. 35VV – Social Innovation Financing Trust Fund
Section 35VV. (a) There shall be established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a trust to be known as the Social Innovation Financing Trust Fund for the purpose of funding contracts to improve outcomes and lower costs for contracted government services, hereinafter referred to as ”pay for success contracts”, subject to the requirements of subsection (b).
Terms Used In Massachusetts General Laws ch. 10 sec. 35VV
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the secretary of administration and finance, may enter into pay for success contracts. Each contract shall include: (1) a requirement that a substantial portion of the payment be conditioned on the achievement of specific outcomes based on defined performance targets; (2) an objective process by which an independent evaluator will determine whether the performance targets have been achieved; (3) a calculation of the amount and timing of payments that would be earned by the service provider during each year of the agreement if performance targets are achieved as determined by the independent evaluator; (4) a sinking fund requirement under which the secretary shall request an appropriation for each fiscal year that the contract is in effect, in an amount equal to the expected payments that the commonwealth would ultimately be obligated to pay in the future based upon service provided during that fiscal year, if performance targets were achieved; and (5) a determination by the secretary that the contract will result in significant performance improvements and budgetary savings across all impacted agencies if the performance targets are achieved.
(c) The secretary may provide that payments in future years under any such contracts shall constitute a general obligation of the commonwealth for which the full faith and credit of the commonwealth shall be pledged for the benefit of the providers of the contracted government services, but the total amount of payments under such contracts secured by a pledge of the full faith and credit of the commonwealth shall not exceed, in the aggregate, $50,000,000.
(d) The secretary shall be the trustee of the trust, shall administer the trust and shall ensure that all funds appropriated as described in this section are deposited in the trust and shall make payments from the trust in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contracts, without further appropriation. The secretary shall provide an annual status report on all contracts not later than February 1 to the house and senate committees on ways and means.