The Town shall comply with the reporting requirements of Article
3 of General Municipal Law of the State of New York and the Governmental
Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement Number 54, Fund Balance
Reporting and Governmental Fund Types Definitions. The Board authorizes
the Supervisor to complete the following actions as necessary to comply
with the requirements of GASB Statement No. 54:
A. Restricted fund balances. Restricted fund balances consists of amounts
that are subject to externally enforceable legal purpose restrictions
imposed by creditors, grantors, contributors, or laws and regulations
of other governments; or through constitutional provisions or enabling
legislation.
B. Committed fund balances. Committed fund balances consists of amounts
that are subject to a purpose constraint imposed by a formal action
of the Town Board before the end of the fiscal year, and that require
the same level of formal action to remove the constraint.
C. Assigned fund balances. Assigned fund balances consists of amounts
that are subject to a purpose constraint that represents an intended
use established by the government's highest level of decision-making
authority, or by its designated body or official. The Board authorized
the Supervisor to make a determination of the assigned amounts of
fund balance. Assigned funds represent amounts intended to be used
for a specific purpose. Assigned fund balances require the same level
of authority to remove the constraint.
The formal action of the government's highest level of
decision-making authority that restricts, commits or assigns fund
balance to a specific purpose should occur prior to the end of the
reporting period, but the amount, if any, which will be subject to
the constraint, may be determined in the subsequent period.
The Town Board will determine the composition of its ending
fund balance by applying its accounting policies regarding whether
it considers restricted or unrestricted amounts to have been spent
when an expenditure is incurred for purposes for which both restricted
and unrestricted (committed, assigned, or unassigned) amounts are
available. Similarly, within unrestricted fund balance, the classification
should be based on the government's accounting policies regarding
whether it considers committed, assigned or unassigned amounts to
have been spent when an expenditure is incurred for purposes for which
amounts in any of those unrestricted fund balance classifications
could be used. If a government does not establish a policy for its
use of unrestricted fund balance amounts, it should consider that
committed amounts would be reduced first, followed by assigned amounts,
and then unassigned amounts when expenditures are incurred for purposes
for which amounts in any of those unrestricted fund balance classifications
could be used.