Section 10B. The state treasurer, in consultation with the secretary of administration and finance and the comptroller, shall prepare and submit to the house and senate committees on ways and means on or before the last day of August, November, February and May official cash flow projections for the current fiscal year and for the fiscal quarters beginning October 1, January 1, April 1 and July 1, respectively. Included in said projections shall be actual spending and revenue through the latest possible date for inclusion in the projections, estimated spending and revenue, along with assumptions used to derive those estimates, a comparison of actual spending and revenue with previous estimates of spending and revenue for those months, an analysis of the variances identified in that comparison and identification of any cash flow gaps.

Terms Used In Massachusetts General Laws ch. 10 sec. 10B

  • 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
  • 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.
  • Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.

Variance reports, which compare actual revenues and spending with planned revenues and spending, shall be produced monthly by the treasurer and distributed to the comptroller’s division, the department of revenue and the executive office for administration and finance. All data required by the treasurer for production of annual and quarterly cash flow projections and monthly variance reports shall be submitted by state agencies, including the state lottery, in a timely fashion, on or before deadlines established by the treasurer. To assist in the preparation of the monthly variance reports, the department of revenue shall be responsible for providing estimates of tax revenue receipts, by tax category as identified in section 1A of the general appropriation act and the office of the comptroller for providing estimates of agency spending and non-tax revenue receipts.

Compilations of such variance reports shall be distributed quarterly to the comptroller’s division, the department of revenue, the executive office for administration and finance and the house and senate committees on ways and means. The executive office for administration and finance and the treasurer shall jointly develop and approve annual and quarterly cash management plans to address gaps identified by cash flow projections and variance reports. Said management plans shall clearly identify the roles to be played by short-term borrowing, investment policy, expenditure controls and revenue management in providing necessary cash.

The state treasurer shall semi-annually report to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on revenue the lending and banking institutions into which the cash deposits of the commonwealth are being deposited.

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