You must contact your city solicitor or town counsel for official legal opinions pertaining to the Act. There are two methods for accepting the Act. The first method requires approval of both the legislative body of the city or town and the electorate. The alternative method is through the use of a local ballot question petition. Please note that any ballot questions regarding the Act may only appear on regularly scheduled municipal election ballots or the state election ballot.
Proper notification is necessary for ballot question placement.
Below please find the legal requirements, with citations, for submitting the questions for placement on a ballot, both by the legislative body and by petition. Also, please find an example of deadlines for each method of approval. The first method of approval requires that a majority of the legislative body of the city or town first approve a specific proposal to present to the voters. The legislative body is defined as town meeting, town council, city council, board of alderman or other body with the power to approve budgets, authorize debt and adopt by-laws or ordinances for the community. 3 through 7 and approve the amount of the surcharge.