231 Mass. 252 | Mass. | 1918
This is a bill in equity brought by the mayor and more than ten taxable inhabitants of the city of Taunton to restrain the city auditor and the city treasurer from paying certain increases in the compensation of firemen and policemen. The main question is whether an order for such increases, with appropriations therefor and ordinances to the same effect, all adopted by the city council without the approval of the mayor, are binding on the city. The. answer depends on the meaning of § 20 of St. 1913, c. 719, commonly called the municipal indebtedness 'act.
The powers of municipal government in Taunton concerned in this controversy are vested in the mayor and a city council of nine members.
The mayor, in accordance with said § 20, submitted his annual budget, for the year ending November 30,1918, which was adopted by the municipal council and approved by him in April, 1918. The budget, as submitted, adopted and approved, contained a general appropriation of $60,000 for the police department and $62,000 for the fire department. These appropriations, although not spent when the subsequent order and ordinances here in issue were passed, were sufficient only for the payment of wages of the policemen and firemen at the rates previously in force, and were not large enough to meet the increases contemplated. In June, 1918, the municipal council passed an order requesting the mayor to.transmit in writing a recommendation for an appropriation for purposes deemed by it necessary, namely, for increases in the wages of the policemen and firemen. The mayor having failed for more than seven days to transmit such recommendation, the council, by vote of at least two thirds of its members, adopted an order appropriating money for that purpose, which was not presented to the mayor for his approval. Then the council passed, notwithstanding a veto by the mayor, three ordinances making a corresponding increase in the pay of the policemen and firemen.
These orders, appropriations and ordinances were void because contrary to the provisions of the municipal indebtedness act. That act was an innovation in the administration of the financial affairs of cities governed by a mayor and a city council. It is an act of broad application, and all provisions of general and special laws inconsistent therewith, save in respects not here material, are repealed. § 22. The manifest purpose of the framers of the act was to set rigid barriers against expenditures in excess of appropriations, to prevent the borrowing of money for current expenses, to confine the making of long time loans strictly to raising money for permanent improvements, and in general to put cities upon a sound financial basis so far as these ends can be achieved by legislation. The budget system was one of the means adopted. The responsibility for framing and presenting the budget is placed on the mayor. He is required, within a brief time after the annual organization of the city government, “to submit to the city council the annual budget of the current expenses of the city.” The budget consists of an itemized and detailed statement of the money required to meet all the current expenses of the city for the year, with clear specifications of the amounts to be expended for each particular purpose. The preparation of a budget of necessity implies a comprehensive survey of all the needs for expenditures for the ordinary municipal operations and an intelligent and discriminating calculation of necessary charges. That is made an executive function. The power of the mayor in this direction, even by way of supplementary budgets, comes to an end when the tax rate has been fixed for the year. The legislative power of the municipal council respecting the budget is not unbounded, but is strictly limited to the reduction or rejection of any item, and it is prohibited from increasing any item in or the total of the budget and from adding any item without the approval of the mayor. The manifest design of these provisions is to provide early in the municipal year a complete schedule
This unequivocal limitation placed by the statute upon the power"of initiative.by the council in making appropriations cannot be circumvented by the agency either of a vote requesting action by the mayor, or of an amendment to ordinances establishing such expenditures, or by the enactment of an ordinance attempting to deprive the mayor of one of the essential prerogatives of
Decree accordingly.