Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 161 § 152
For the purpose of acquiring street railway property or other equipment or facility under sections one hundred and forty-three to one hundred and fifty-eight, inclusive, of operating the same, or of contributing toward the sums expended by the transportation area for capital purposes, cities and towns may, with the approval of the department, borrow money in excess of the statutory limit, but not exceeding the sum of two per cent of their respective equalized valuation as defined in section one of chapter forty-four. The board of trustees of a transportation area shall have the power to at one time or from time to time issue bonds and notes for any one or more of the purposes for which a regional transit authority may issue bonds and notes under sections seven, ten and seventeen of chapter one hundred and sixty-one B of the General Laws. The power to issue such bonds and notes shall be subject to the terms set forth in sections seven, ten, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen and twenty of chapter one hundred and sixty-one B of the General Laws. The board of trustees of a transportation area shall have the power to provide for the issue of interest bearing or discounted notes for the purposes and in the amounts that bonds may be issued in the same manner and subject to the same limitations as are applicable to regional transit authorities under section twenty-one of chapter one hundred and sixty-one B.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 161, § 152