2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title II - Executive and Administrative Officers of the Commonwealth › Chapter 15a - Public Education › Section 15b - Budget Cycle; Preparation and Submission of Budget Requests; Comments and Recommendations

Section 15B. There shall be established a two year budget cycle for the public system of higher education which shall be instituted beginning in fiscal year nineteen hundred and ninety-four and shall be repeated every even numbered fiscal year thereafter.
In preparing for the even numbered fiscal year of said two year budget cycle each board of trustees shall prepare and submit to the secretary and the council a budget request for the ordinary maintenance of its institution; said budget request shall include the salary of all officers and employees of said institution and all revenues therefrom and any other such information as the secretary and the council may require or as provided in section three of chapter twenty-nine. Each board of trustees shall make requests to the secretary and the council under the provisions of chapter twenty-nine. The boards of trustees shall attach to said even numbered fiscal year budget request a budget request for the following odd numbered fiscal year; said odd numbered fiscal year budget request shall include the salary of all officers and employees of said institution and all revenues therefrom and any other such information as the secretary and the council may require or as provided in section three of chapter twenty-nine.
Boards of trustees in each segment of the higher education system shall prepare their budget request in accordance with funding formulas. The board of higher education shall develop the formulas for the institutions within the state university and community college segments in consultation with the boards of trustees and the secretary. The university trustees shall develop funding formulas for the university campuses in consultation with the campus administrations and the board of higher education and the secretary. All funding formulas shall be periodically reviewed and revised as needed.
Each board of trustees shall prepare their estimates and requests according to the funding formulas prescribed in section fifteen A of this chapter.
The council shall review the institutional budget requests prepared by each board of trustees and shall submit comments and recommendations concerning those requests to the secretary. The secretary shall then prepare a comprehensive budget request for the public higher education system, with comments and recommendations, for use by the secretary of administration and finance, the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on higher education. In the case of the university, it shall be the responsibility of the trustees to submit comments and recommendations regarding the budget requests of individual campuses within the university system to the secretary and the board of higher education. In the case of any institution, or the university, having failed to submit data according to the schedule established under clause (s) of the first paragraph of section 9, the secretary may withhold transmittal of the budget request from that board of trustees to the secretary of administration and finance and committees. The comments and recommendations attached by the secretary and the board of higher education for each state and community college and by the board of trustees of the university for each university campus, shall be consistent with the funding formulas, statewide needs, performance measurement standards, as well as the mission statements and 5–year plans for individual campuses and the public higher education system as a whole. They shall also reflect analysis by the respective boards for each campus regarding progress made by the campuses in fulfilling strategic plans including, but not limited to, significant achievements and progress in addressing any previously identified deficiencies. The comments and recommendations shall be made available to the individual institutions and campuses before submission to the secretary of administration and finance and legislative committees with sufficient time allowed to provide opportunity for comment and response by those institutions and campuses. In reviewing the various estimates and requests, the secretary and the council may comment on the overall level of funding for the system of public higher education and may comment regarding funding priorities among segments of the system of public higher education and among the various institutions. The secretary shall submit her recommendations and comments to the secretary of administration and finance, the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on higher education. The secretary shall include in addition to the information provided by the boards of trustees all program costs which are to be borne by any other source other than the commonwealth, including such sources as federal financing or federal research demonstration or training grants, community contributions and other grants, endowments or trusts.