Section 38 Witness fees; payment
Section 38. Money appropriated for fees of witnesses before the general court may be paid to the sergeant-at-arms, who shall pay therefrom the legal fees due to witnesses summoned before committees authorized to send for persons and papers, upon the certificate of the chairman or other member authorized by the committee to certify such accounts, as soon as may be after said witnesses have been discharged, and in like manner shall pay the expense of taking depositions authorized by such committees, and shall, within ten days after prorogation, return to the comptroller an account of such payments, and repay to the state treasurer the unexpended balance of such money. If witnesses are summoned in any session before an appropriation for their payment has been made, the governor may draw his warrant for an amount not exceeding the appropriation made in the preceding fiscal year, and in no case exceeding three hundred dollars.