Section 21C. A city, town or district may by a two-thirds vote of its legislative body, if recommended by its chief executive officer, authorize any department of the city, town or district to enter into a lease purchase financing agreement to acquire equipment or improve a capital asset that may be financed by the issuance of debt under this chapter or otherwise authorized by law, for a term up to the useful life of the property to be procured as determined by its chief executive officer. Any lease purchase financing agreement under this section shall be considered a binding obligation of the city, town or district as if it were a debt authorization under this chapter, provided an appropriation available for the purpose has been made in the first fiscal year in which the lease becomes effective. Any city, town or district that follows the procedure in this section with respect to entering into a lease purchase financing agreement for the procurement of any personal property for the governmental entity, may refinance the purchase with the issuance of refunding bonds under section 21A to pay the balance of the lease obligation.

Terms Used In Massachusetts General Laws ch. 44 sec. 21C

  • 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.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • 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.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.