Section 18C Distribution of Local Aid Fund

Section 18C. Commencing with fiscal year nineteen hundred and ninety-three and continuing thereafter, the state treasurer shall, subject to appropriation and upon certification of the commissioner, annually distribute the Local Aid Fund including, but not limited to, forty percent of the sales tax, forty percent of the income tax and forty percent of the corporate income tax as well as the balance of the State Lottery Fund, in accordance with the provisions of this section. The distribution shall be made in four equal payments. Said payments shall be made annually, in each fiscal year, on or before September thirtieth, December thirty-first, March thirty-first and June thirtieth.

(1) The amount distributed under this section to any city or town shall not be less than one hundred percent of the sum of the total amounts actually received by such city or town under sections eighteen A and eighteen C of chapter fifty-eight and section thirty-five of chapter ten for the preceding fiscal year, unless the amount credited to the Local Aid Fund in the current fiscal year is less than the amount credited to the Local Aid Fund, as certified by the commissioner in the preceding fiscal year.

(2) In the event that the amount credited to the Local Aid Fund and appropriated to cities and towns in any fiscal year is greater than the amount credited to the Local Aid Fund and appropriated to cities and towns in the preceding fiscal year, the excess shall be distributed to each city and town as determined by the secretary of administration with the advice and consent of the local government advisory committee operating pursuant to section sixty-two of chapter three.

The distribution shall be made such that each city and town shall receive some portion of the excess funds and such that no city or town shall receive less than such city or town received in the previous fiscal year.

(3) In the event that the amount credited to the Local Aid Fund and appropriated in any fiscal year to cities and towns is less than the amount credited to the Local Aid Fund and appropriated to cities and towns in the preceding fiscal year, then such deficiency shall be applied against each city and town, such that the distribution to each city and town in the current fiscal year shall equal the distribution in the previous fiscal year, multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which shall be the total amount available for distribution in the current year and the denominator of which shall be the total amount distributed in the previous fiscal year.

(4) Notwithstanding clause Forty-first of section 7 of chapter 4 or any other general or special law to the contrary, the commissioner of revenue or any official responsible for a local reimbursement or assistance program reported by said commissioner pursuant to section 25A shall use, as appropriate, the most recent city and town population estimates of the United States Bureau of the Census in calculating distributions or assessments under local reimbursement or assistance programs. Such distribution programs shall include, but not be limited to, the chapter 70 school aid program, and aid to regional public libraries. Such assessments shall include, but not be limited to, air pollution control districts, the metropolitan area planning council, the old colony planning council, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and any other entity for which said commissioner is required to give notice pursuant to said section 25A.