Section 34 Disposition of fees; appropriation of highway fund
Section 34. The fees received under the preceding sections, together with all other fees received by the registrar or any other person under the laws of the commonwealth relating to the use and operation of motor vehicles and trailers, except fees received by the department for deposit in the Interstate Permit Fund for the benefit of other states, shall be paid by the registrar or by the person collecting the same into the treasury of the commonwealth, and said fees, together with all contributions and assessments paid into the treasury of the commonwealth by cities, towns or counties for maintaining, repairing, improving and constructing ways, whether before or after the work is completed, all refunds and rebates made on account of expenditures on ways by the department, all receipts paid into the treasury of the commonwealth and directed to be credited to the Highway Fund under the provisions of chapter sixty-four A, sixty-four E, sixty-four F or any other applicable general or special law, all monies received by the commonwealth in satisfaction of claims by the commonwealth for damage to highway safety signs, signals, guardrails, curbing and other highway related facilities, and all receipts received by the state treasurer under the provisions of section eight of chapter ten shall be credited on the books of the commonwealth to a fund to be known as the Highway Fund. Said Highway Fund, subject to appropriation, shall be used as follows:
(1) Such portion as is authorized shall be expended to carry out the provisions of law relative to the use and operation of motor vehicles and trailers and for expenses authorized to administer the law relative to the taxation of the sales of gasoline and certain other motor vehicle fuel;
(2) The balance then remaining shall be used—
(a) For expenditure, under the direction of said department, for maintaining, repairing, improving and constructing town and county ways and bridges, sidewalks adjacent to such ways and bridges, bikeways and other projects eligible for funding as a transportation enhancement project as described in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, P.L. 102-240, salt storage sheds, bikeways and public use off-street parking facilities related to mass transportation, for engineering services and expenses related to highway transportation enhancement and mass transportation purposes, for care, repair, storage, replacement, purchase and long-term leasing of road building machinery, equipment and tools, for the erection and maintenance of direction signs and warning signs and for necessary or beneficial improvements to unpaved town and county ways together with any money which any town or county may appropriate for such purposes to be used on the same ways, sheds, bikeways, bridges, machinery, equipment, tools and facilities. Such engineering services, including surveying services, shall only be performed by architectural, engineering or surveying firms prequalified by the department; provided, however, that a municipality may seek a waiver of this requirement from the department if the municipality demonstrates to the satisfaction of the department that it is cost prohibitive to use a prequalified firm. Such ways, sheds, bikeways, bridges, machinery, equipment, tools and facilities shall remain town or county ways, sheds, bikeways, bridges, machinery, equipment, tools and facilities. No revenue credited to the Highway Fund shall be transferred from said Fund to any other Fund of the Commonwealth for any other purpose; provided, however, that such revenue shall be transferred in order to recover fringe benefit costs pursuant to section five D or subsection (f) of section six B of chapter twenty-nine. The department shall withhold or withdraw the unexpended balance of any funds assigned by it under this subdivision if the town fails to comply with the official standards for traffic control established by the department or with any provision of a traffic control agreement negotiated between the department and the town, as required by the United States Secretary of Commerce under section 109 of Title 23 of the United States Code. In this subdivision the word “town” shall include city;
(b) For expenditure, under the direction of said department, for maintaining, repairing and improving state highways and bridges;
(c) For expenditure, under the direction of said department, in addition to federal aid payments received under section thirty of chapter eighty-one, for construction of state highways;
(d) For expenditure, under the direction of said department, for engineering services and expenses, for care, repair, storage, replacement and purchase of road building machinery and tools, for snow removal, for the erection and maintenance of direction signs and warning signs and for the care of shrubs and trees on state highways, and for expenses incidental to the foregoing or incidental to the purposes specified in subdivisions (a), (b) or (c) of this clause;
(e) To meet interest, sinking fund and serial payments on state highway and western Massachusetts highway and abolition of grade crossing bonds;
(f) To meet the commonwealth’s share of the interest, sinking fund and serial payments on metropolitan parks loans, series two, and to pay such sums as the commonwealth may be required to pay out of receipts from motor vehicle fees for particular traffic routes now or hereafter authorized;
(g) For expenditure, under the direction of the metropolitan district commission, to meet the cost of maintenance of boulevards in the metropolitan parks district under section fifty-six of chapter ninety-two, and the commonwealth’s share of the cost of construction of boulevards within said district now or hereafter authorized;
(h) For expenditure, under the direction of the colonel of the state police, for the maintenance, in part, of the department of state police;
(i) For the purposes of the Infrastructure Fund established pursuant to the provisions of section two O of chapter twenty-nine.
Notwithstanding the first paragraph, $2 from each motorcycle registration fee shall be paid by the registrar or by the person collecting the registration fee into the General Fund and shall be appropriated solely for the purpose of promoting and advancing motorcycle safety.
Notwithstanding the above provisions, all fees received in the issuance of veterans plates, pursuant to section two, in excess of the fees set for the registration of the motor vehicle, shall be paid by the registrar into the General Fund.
Revenues credited to the Highway Fund shall not be transferred to any other fund of the commonwealth for any purpose; provided, however, that such revenue shall be transferred in order to recover fringe benefit costs pursuant to section five D or subsection (f) of section six B of chapter twenty-nine.