Executive Order  No. 289: Open books and balanced budget

Executive Order No. 289

WHEREAS, it is both the policy and Constitutional mandate that the Commonwealth balance its budget; and

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth has experienced erratic revenue growth which has resulted in three years of expenditures in excess of revenues; and

WHEREAS, the resolution of the deficit in those three years involved, in one instance, depletion of the Rainy Day Account, and for two years, new taxes; and

WHEREAS, the first two months of fiscal 1991 indicate that revenues are below the budget estimate; and

WHEREAS, it is incumbent upon the current administration to manage the budget to ensure that it is actually in balance when a new administration takes over in January, 1991:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Evelyn F. Murphy, Acting Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Supreme Executive Magistrate, do hereby issue this order as a necessary step to ensure open disclosure of the status of the budget at regular intervals and to restore the confidence of the citizens of the Commonwealth in government's ability to manage tax dollars.

Article I

• 1.1 Every month within five (5) working days of the final revenue receipts or final payment of bills, whichever is later, the Secretary of Administration and Finance ("the Secretary") shall submit a monthly balanced books report (the "Monthly Budget Report") to the Governor and the Clerks of the House and Senate, which report shall be a public record and which shall document whether the state's books are in balance for that month and for the fiscal year to date. If the budget is in deficit, the Monthly Budget Report shall further include a summary of specific measures to be taken commencing within one month to address the imbalance as projected for the fiscal year.
• 1.2 The Monthly Budget Report shall show for the last month, and for the fiscal year-to-date, the actual revenues, the estimated revenues, the actual expenditures, and the estimated expenditures. Furthermore, this report shall show the monthly spending for each executive department, and indicating separately for each executive department the variance, if any, from each department budget.
• 1.3 The Monthly Budget Report shall include figures for tax revenues (in accordance with Section 34 of H.5701), non-tax revenues, retained revenues, spending of all accounts, implementation of planned savings, costs accrued attributable to the period but not paid, one-time costs such as court judgements, and other information which materially affect the books being in balance.

Article II

• 2.1 At the close of each quarter of each fiscal year, the Monthly Budget Report prepared by the Secretary pursuant to Article I of this Executive Order shall be subject to a review by an independent accounting firm to be retained by the Secretary with the approval of the Governor. This review shall consist of an examination of the reasonableness of the assumptions and conclusions of Monthly Budget Report, for the quarter then ended, the reasonableness of the data relied upon in the preparation of such Monthly Budget Report, and whether the accounting principles utilized in preparation of such Monthly Budget Report are reasonable and have been consistently applied from period to period. The review by such independent accounting firm shall be submitted to the Secretary by the end of the month next succeeding the end of each quarter of each fiscal year and shall be a public record.

Article III

• 3.1 For any secretariat whose books are out of balance as indicated by the Monthly Budget Report, the secretary will submit to the Secretary, the actions which he or she will take to bring the books into balance by the next month, or receive approval from the Secretary that any expenditures over budget are the result of entitlements, court orders or other events outside the control of the cabinet secretary.
• 3.2 For any cabinet secretary whose books are declared in deficit, if that cabinet secretary fails to specify the actions he or she will take to balance his or her books or if he or she fails to receive approval from the Secretary for expenditures over budget, then he or she will be subject to a reduction in his or her salary. If any cabinet secretary's budget is in deficit for two consecutive months, then that cabinet secretary may be subject to suspension or termination.

Evelyn F. Murphy, Acting Governor
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Michael Joseph Connolly
Secretary of the Commonwealth