Author: Financial Management Resource Bureau
As the fiscal year draws to a close and FY2026 budgets are being approved at town meeting or through a vote of the city council, municipal officials should begin submitting available appropriation information into Gateway. DLS highly recommends city and town clerks, in collaboration with members of the municipal finance team, begin reporting financial figures and legislative actions into Gateway following annual town meeting or council approvals. This information is integral to the tax rate recapitulation process that must be completed annually for every municipality in order to establish the tax levy and set a tax rate.
Page 4 of the Tax Rate Recap sheet contains details of all town meeting or city council appropriations made since the prior year tax rate was set. Appropriations are recorded based on funding sources, including from general revenues (“raise and appropriate”), free cash, other available funds, offset receipts, enterprise funds, and community preservation funds. Supporting forms must be completed for funds that are appropriated outside of raise and appropriate.
To assist municipal officials in internally tracking and reporting legislative actions, DLS offers a variety of tools that can be found on our Tools and Templates page. A key highlight is the City/Town Appropriations template. This excel-based tool has been formatted based on page 4 of the Tax Recap in Gateway and is designed to help track appropriation votes and corresponding funding sources. Additionally, this template includes an ‘Impact’ spreadsheet to aid in tracking amounts reported on the Tax Rate schedules B-1 (free cash), B-2 (other funds), and A-4 (CPF). We encourage clerks to use this tool to record financial information and reconcile these figures with their accounting officer.
Municipal clerks must also submit Proposition 2 ½ questions into Gateway. The DLS webinar Submitting Proposition 2 ½ Votes Using DLS Gateway explains this process for votes on overrides, underrides, and debt or capital expenditure exclusions.
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| Date published: | May 15, 2025 |
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