Nantasket Beach Reservation Trust and Commonwealth Transportation Fund
SECTION 9.
Said chapter 10 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 35KK, inserted by section 2 of chapter 422 of the acts of 2008, the following 2 sections:-
Section 35LL. (a) There shall be established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be know as the Nantasket Beach Reservation Trust Fund to be used, without further appropriation, for the preservation, maintenance and safety of Nantasket Beach in the town of Hull. Any balance in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund, but shall remain available for expenditure in subsequent fiscal years. No expenditure made from the fund shall cause the fund to become deficient at any point during a fiscal year.
(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department of conservation and recreation shall impose a surcharge of $4 for non-seniors and $2 for seniors upon each fee charged and collected from admission into parking in the Nantasket Beach Reservation. The additional monies collected from the surcharge shall be deposited into the Nantasket Beach Preservation Trust Fund. Expenditures by the trust for public safety shall first be made available to the town of Hull's police, fire, ambulance and emergency personnel. No later than November 30 of each year, a representative from the department of conservation and recreation shall meet with the Hull board of selectmen to discuss the maintenance and safety plan for the next calendar year as well as the balance and expenditures from the Nantasket Beach Reservation Trust Fund.
Section 35MM. There shall be established and placed within the executive office of transportation or any successor agency or authority a separate fund to be known as the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund which shall be used for financing transportation-related purposes of the executive office of transportation or any successor agency or authority. The secretary shall be authorized to enter into agreements with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Massachusetts Port Authority, the regional transit authorities and, for so long as it shall continue to exist, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to commit any funds generated from fares, fees, tolls or any other revenue sources including, but not limited to, from federal sources of these authorities to the fund. There shall be credited to the fund all turnpike revenues and other toll and non-toll revenue collected by the department after assumption of the assets, obligations and liabilities of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, all tolls collected by the department after transfer of the Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge by the Massachusetts Port Authority to the department, all refunds and rebates made on account of expenditures on ways by the department, any revenues from appropriations or other monies authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund, any gifts, grants, private contributions, investment income earned on the fund's assets, all monies received by the department for the sale or lease of property, all monies received by the department in satisfaction of claims by the department for damage to highway and bridge safety signs, signals, guardrails, curbing and other highway and bridge related facilities, and other receipts of the department. Money remaining in the fund at the end of the year shall not revert to the General Fund.
(b) In addition to those revenues credited to the fund pursuant to subsection (a), beginning in fiscal year 2011, there shall be credited to the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund all monies received by the commonwealth equal to .385 percent of the receipts from sales, as defined by chapter 64H of the General Laws, and .385 per cent of the sales price of purchases, as defined by chapter 64I of the General Laws, from that portion of the taxes imposed under said chapters 64H and 64I as excises upon the sale and use at retail of tangible property or of services, and upon the storage, use or other consumption of tangible property, or of services, including interest thereon or penalties, but not including any portion of the taxes that constitute special receipts within the meaning of subsection (b 1/2) of section 10 of chapter 152 of the acts of 1997 or within the meaning of said subsection (b 1/2). If in a fiscal year the amount credited to the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund under this paragraph is less than $275,000,000, then the comptroller shall transfer an amount from the General Fund to make up the difference between the amount credited to said fund and $275,000,000, not later than September 1 of the following fiscal year; provided that the comptroller shall make said transfer according to a schedule developed annually by the comptroller in consultation with the secretary of administration and finance and the state treasurer to minimize adverse impact on the commonwealth's cash flow.
The comptroller shall only make transfers from the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund to any surface transportation-related authority or to any other fund used by the commonwealth or any such authority for toll and fare mitigation and other transportation-related purposes, as provided in this section.
(c) (i) Annually, beginning in fiscal year 2011, the secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the secretary of administration and finance shall issue a written schedule for transfers from the fund to the comptroller and the chairs of the house and senate committees on ways and means at least 30 days in advance of the first proposed scheduled transfer. The secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the secretary of administration and finance may amend the schedule upon 30 days advance notice to the comptroller and the chairs of the senate and house committees on ways and means. The schedule issued under this section shall ensure that $100,000,000 shall be transferred to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority or its successor in interest in each fiscal year and, to provide for and secure this payment obligation, the secretary of administration and finance, on behalf of the commonwealth, shall, with the concurrence of the secretary of transportation and public works, enter into a contract with the authority before July 1, 2009 providing for the payment of that amount to said authority in each fiscal year for the purpose of defraying costs, including debt service on bonds heretofore or hereafter issued by the authority or its successor in interest to finance or refinance improvements to the metropolitan highway system. The term of this contract shall extend until the last fiscal year in which any such bonds issued before the date of the contract are scheduled to mature. These payments may be treated as revenues of the authority or of its successor in interest within the meaning of section 6 of chapter 81A and the authority or its successor in interest may pledge such contract and the rights of the authority or its successor in interest to receive amounts thereunder as security for the payment of the bonds issued before the date of the contract or of any bonds or notes issued by the authority or its successor in interest to refinance those bonds. This contract shall constitute a general obligation of the commonwealth for which the faith and credit of the commonwealth shall be pledged for the benefit of the authority or its successor in interest and of the holders of any bonds or notes secured by a pledge of such contract or of amounts to be received by the authority or its successor in interest under the contract. The payment obligation and contract securing it provided for in this section shall be in addition to the payment obligation provided for under section 12 of chapter 81A and the contract securing it under said section 12.
(ii) The remaining amount transferred under this section shall be distributed to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and regional transit authorities according the following parameters:
(a) $160,000,000 shall be transferred to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or any fund controlled by the authority in each fiscal year; and
(b) $15,000,000 shall be transferred to regional transit authorities organized under chapter 161B or predecessor statutes in each fiscal year.
(iii) The comptroller shall only make transfers from the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund to any surface transportation-related authority or to any other fund used by the commonwealth or any such authority for toll and fare mitigation and other transportation-related purposes, as provided in this section. The final transfer to any transportation-related authority in a fiscal year shall be not later than two weeks before the end of that fiscal year.
(d) The remaining balance of the fund after compliance with subsection (c) shall be under the control of the executive office of transportation or any successor agency or authority, not subject to appropriation and shall be used as follows:-
(i) For expenditures to meet any debt obligations of the department following the dissolution of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and assumption of assets, obligations and liabilities by the department;
(ii) For expenditure by the department for maintaining, repairing, improving and constructing municipal ways and bridges, sidewalks adjacent to such ways and bridges, bikeways and other projects eligible for funding as a transportation enhancement project as described in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, P.L. 102-240, salt storage sheds, bikeways and public use off-street parking facilities related to mass transportation, for engineering services and expenses related to highway transportation enhancement and mass transportation purposes, for care, repair, storage, replacement, purchase and long-term leasing of road building machinery, equipment and tools, for the erection and maintenance of direction signs and warning signs and for necessary or beneficial improvements to unpaved municipal ways together with any money which any municipality may appropriate for such purposes to be used on the same ways, sheds, bikeways, bridges, machinery, equipment, tools and facilities. Such engineering services, including surveying services, shall only be performed by architectural, engineering or surveying firms prequalified by the department; provided, however, that a municipality may seek a waiver of this requirement from the department if the municipality demonstrates to the satisfaction of the department that it is cost prohibitive to use a prequalified firm. Such ways, sheds, bikeways, bridges, machinery, equipment, tools and facilities shall remain municipal ways, sheds, bikeways, bridges, machinery, equipment, tools and facilities. The department shall withhold or withdraw the unexpended balance of any funds assigned by it under this clause if the municipality fails to comply with the official standards for traffic control established by the department or with any provision of a traffic control agreement negotiated between the department and the municipality, as required by the United States Secretary of Commerce under section 109 of Title 23 of the United States Code;
(iii) For expenditure by the department for maintaining, repairing and improving state highways and bridges in the state highway system designated parkways and for the turnpike and the metropolitan highway system managed by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority until its dissolution ;
(iv) For expenditure by the department, in addition to federal aid payments received under section 30 of chapter 81, for construction of state highways;
(v) For expenditure by the department for engineering services and expenses, for care, repair, storage, replacement and purchase of road building machinery and tools, for snow removal, for the erection and maintenance of direction signs and warning signs, for the care of shrubs and trees on state highways and for expenses incidental to the foregoing or incidental to the purposes specified in clause (b), (c) or (d);
(vi) For expenditure for the operations of the department and any divisions thereof;
(vii) For expenditure by the department for infrastructure improvements to transportation facilities throughout the commonwealth;
(viii) For regional expenditure by the department for highway division projects in the 5 geographic regions of the commonwealth consistent with the boundaries of the 5 highway division districts as existing on July 1, 2009;
(ix) For expenditure for highway field services and transportation support programs including, but not limited to, state police highway patrols and accident teams; and
(x) For any other expense of the department necessary to carry out its purposes.