2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts › Chapter 40d - Industrial Development of Cities and Towns › Section 7 - Powers of Municipalities

Section 7. (a) For the purpose of carrying out a project as authorized by this chapter, a municipality acting by or through an industrial development financing authority shall have the following powers to the extent that the same are not elsewhere in this chapter expressly limited:
(i) to acquire, purchase, hold, lease as lessee and use any franchise, facilities, or property, real, personal or mixed, tangible or intangible, wherever located, within the municipality or contiguous thereto or any interest therein necessary or desirable for carrying out the purposes of the authority, and to sell, mortgage, lease as lessor, transfer and dispose of any property or interest therein at any time acquired by it;
(ii) to construct and to improve, maintain and repair industrial development pollution control and solid waste disposal facilities;
(iii) to issue bonds as herein provided;
(iv) to make contracts of every name and nature and to execute all instruments necessary or convenient for the carrying on of its business;
(v) without limitation of the foregoing, to borrow money and accept grants from and to enter into contracts, leases or other transactions with the commonwealth or its agencies or instrumentalities, any federal agency, any municipality, bank or other financial institution, corporation or other authority organized under this chapter;
(vi) to pledge, hypothecate or otherwise encumber all or any of the revenues or receipts or property or interests in property of the authority as security for bonds of the authority;
(vii) in the event of a default by a user under a financing document to do all things deemed by it necessary or desirable to preserve, protect or operate any project or other property furnished as security under such financing document and the rights of the holders of any bonds secured by the revenues from such financing document;
(viii) to loan the proceeds of any issue of bonds to a user in order to finance the cost of a project, which loan may be either unsecured or secured by an interest in the project or other tangible or intangible property or by a combination of the foregoing;
(ix) to consent, subject to the provisions of any contract with bondholders, and without the requirement for making additional findings pursuant to section twelve, whenever it deems it necessary or desirable in the fulfillment of the purposes of this chapter, to the modification, with respect to rate of interest, time of payment of any installment of principal or interest, maturity date or any other terms, of any bond, mortgage, mortgage loan, mortgage loan commitment, contract or agreement of any kind to which the municipality, acting by and through an authority, is a party.
(b) An authority shall have no power at any time or in any manner on behalf of a municipality or otherwise to exercise the power of eminent domain and nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to confer upon any municipality any power to take any property or interest therein by eminent domain. An authority shall have no power to pledge the faith and credit or taxing power of the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof. No such authority shall engage in the usual promotion of industrial development activities.
(c) Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to permit the financing by a municipality of a plant for the manufacture or distribution of gas or electricity except (i) back-up power generating or distribution facilities or other facilities for the supply of gas or electricity to occupants of an industrial development project financed under this chapter, (ii) pollution control facilities, (iii) solid waste disposal facilities, (iv) small power production facilities, and (v) cogeneration facilities.