[HISTORY: Adopted by the County Commissioners of Caroline
County 10-15-2013 by Bill No. 2013-3. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The purpose of this chapter is to establish orderly procedures
for budgeting and finance. This includes facilitating a budget process
that is open and transparent, developing an annual budget that accurately
reflects the goals and priorities of the County Commissioners, and
implements a prudent financial plan ensuring the sound management
and operation of County government and allied agencies while minimizing
the burden on the taxpayer to the extent practicable.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall be defined
as follows:
Governmental or nongovernmental agencies funded in whole
or part by the County.
The person designated by the County Administrator to supervise
the County's budgetary process.
The plan of the County to receive and expend funds for capital
projects during the first fiscal year included in the approved capital
improvement plan (CIP).
The plan of the County to receive and expend funds for capital
projects during the fiscal year covered by the capital budget and
for the next succeeding five fiscal years. The capital improvement
plan (CIP) shall include but is not limited to:
A clear general summary;
A list of all capital improvements and other capital expenditures
which are proposed to be undertaken during the six fiscal years next
ensuing, with appropriate supporting information as to the necessity
for each;
Cost estimates and recommended time schedules for each improvement
or other capital expenditure;
Method of financing upon which each capital expenditure is to
be reliant;
A feasibility study demonstrating the need for any facility
to be constructed or acquired; and
The estimated annual cost of operating and maintaining the facilities
to be constructed or acquired.
Any physical public betterment or improvement and any preliminary
studies and surveys relative thereto; the acquisition of property
of a permanent nature for public use; or the purchase of equipment
for any public betterment or improvement when first constructed. For
the purpose of this chapter, "capital project" shall be further defined
by the purchase cost and/or the estimated useful life per generally
accepted accounting procedures.
Any money appropriated or approved by the County Commissioners
or to which the County may at any time have legal or equitable title.
The County Commissioners of Caroline County, a body corporate
and politic, and all departments thereof.
Proprietary fund type used to report an activity for which
a fee is charged to external users for goods or services.
The twelve-month period used for the purposes of accounting,
budgeting, and taxation and the period upon which all financial statements,
financial reports and financial audits are based.
The chief operating fund of the County. The general fund
is used to account for all financial resources not accounted for in
some other fund.
The plan of the County to receive and expend funds for charges
incurred for operation, maintenance, interest and other charges for
the ensuing fiscal year.
The fiscal year shall begin on July 1 each year and close on
June 30 the following year.
The County budget shall be a comprehensive financial plan showing:
A.
Expenses and revenues from the prior fiscal year;
B.
Budgeted expenses and revenues for the current fiscal year;
C.
Projected expenses and revenues for the upcoming fiscal year;
D.
A capital budget and capital improvement plan;
E.
Summary information for enterprise and other funds;
F.
Debt service requirements;
G.
An estimate of the unrestricted general fund balance at the end of
the fiscal year;
H.
A table of the bonded and other indebtedness of the County;
I.
A line item amount set aside for contingency within the general fund;
J.
Other information the County Commissioners, the County Administrator,
or the Budget Director deem advisable.
The budget adopted or at any time thereafter amended by the
County Commissioners shall be balanced as to revenues and expenditures
for all funds.
A.
Budget Director. Pursuant to § 18-7C(4) of the Caroline County Code, the County Administrator shall prescribe the form of the County's budgets, supervise and direct the preparation of the County's budgets and prepare all materials or messages related to those budgets. The County Administrator may assign a County employee to serve as the Budget Director and may delegate to that person any or all of the following responsibilities:
(1)
Fix a calendar or schedule for budget preparation, submission of
estimates, review, presentation, public hearings and enactment and
related budget and accounting matters;
(2)
Provide for the submission of departmental and allied agency budget
requests, including the scope of services to be provided and other
justifications with the budget estimates;
(3)
Prepare a draft budget for submission to the County Commissioners;
(4)
Facilitate public hearings for the public to comment upon the budget
requests and the proposed budget;
(5)
Facilitate workshops as necessary for the County Commissioners to
deliberate upon the proposed budget;
(6)
Coordinate the preparation of the proposed budget and any legislative
action necessary for the levy of taxes, issuance of debt, and other
actions required to implement the County's budget.
B.
Annual budget requests. No later than January 31 of each year, the
County Administrator or the Budget Director shall send to each department,
commission and board of the County and to every allied agency or other
entity funded in whole or part by the County notice of the annual
budget process and those forms required to submit an annual budget
request. All departments, agencies and entities desiring County funding
shall submit annual operating and capital budget requests on or before
the deadline established by the County Administrator or Budget Director.
All such requests shall include any other information and/or supporting
documentation as may be requested.
C.
Annual municipal property tax setoff requests.
(1)
In accordance with § 6-306 of the Tax-Property Article
of the Annotated Code of Maryland and as may be amended from time
to time, on or before December 1 of each year, any municipal corporation
in the County that desires a property tax setoff shall submit a request
in writing to the County. This request shall include:
(a)
The desired level of property tax setoff for the next fiscal
year;
(b)
A description of the scope and nature of the services or programs
provided by the municipal corporation instead of similar services
or programs provided by the County;
(c)
Financial records and other documentation regarding municipal revenues and expenditures. Such records shall include a copy of the municipal budget for the preceding year, a copy of the municipal budget for the current fiscal year, and financial records pertaining to the services provided in Subsection C(1)(b) as determined by the County Administrator or Budget Director.
(2)
Nothing in this chapter shall limit the ability of the County Commissioners
to make grants to individual incorporated municipalities, including
but not limited to planning grants or hold harmless grants.
A.
Budget requests public hearing. The County Commissioners shall schedule
and hold at least one public hearing to hear comment on the budget
requests. The County Commissioners shall publish in one or more newspapers
of general circulation in the County a notice stating the place where
copies of the budget requests are available for inspection by the
public, and the time and place, not less than 10 days after such publication,
where the public hearing will be held.
B.
Proposed budget public hearing. After presentation of the draft budget
and prior to adoption, the County Commissioners shall schedule and
hold at least one public hearing to hear comment on the proposed budget.
The County Commissioners shall publish in one or more newspapers of
general circulation in the County a notice stating the place where
copies of the proposed requests are available for inspection by the
public, and the time and place, not less than 10 days after such publication,
where the public hearing will be held.
A.
After the public hearing on the proposed budget as required by this
chapter, the County Commissioners shall consider all comments and
direct the preparation of a final proposed budget which then shall
be adopted by resolution on or before the second Tuesday in June.
The County Commissioners may adopt the budget with or without amendment.
In amending the budget, the County Commissioners may add or increase
programs or amounts and may delete or decrease any programs or amounts,
except expenditures required by law or for debt service, or for an
estimated cash deficit, provided that no amendment to the budget shall
increase the authorized expenditures to an amount greater than total
estimated income. The adopted budget shall take effect on the first
day of the fiscal year.
B.
If the County Commissioners fail for any reason to adopt the proposed
budget on or before the second Tuesday of June, effective July 1,
the County shall continue operating based on the previous fiscal year's
adopted budget except that no capital expenditures shall be made until
a new budget is adopted in accordance with this chapter.
A.
Pursuant to § 18-7C(4) of the Caroline County Code, the County Administrator or his or her designee shall administer the County's budget where such responsibilities include but are not limited to:
(1)
Providing for the enacted budget to be reproduced and available to
the public upon request;
(2)
Providing for the allotment of appropriations to control the rate
of expenditure and prevent deficits;
(3)
Providing for the control of the transfer of appropriations in conformance
with this chapter;
(4)
Establishing and maintaining revenue and expenditure account classifications
so as to ensure a uniform system of general fund accounting and for
enterprise fund accounting;
(5)
Ensuring that all expenditures are made in conformance with the adopted
budget or adopted capital budget or in conformance with the amended
budget where an amendment has been approved by a majority vote of
the County Commissioners;
(6)
Requiring that the departments, allied agencies and entities funded
by the County to prepare and transmit routine financial reports related
to the use of County funds.
B.
All disbursements of County funds shall conform to the approved budget.
No obligation shall be incurred against, and no payment shall be made
from, any budget account adopted unless there is a sufficient unencumbered
balance in the account and sufficient funds are or will be available
to meet the obligation.
Once adopted by the County Commissioners, the County's
budget shall be amended in conformance with the following:
A.
Transfers of appropriations between general classifications of expenditures
in the current operating budget, within the same department and within
the same fund, may be authorized by majority vote of the County Commissioners.
B.
Transfers between agencies of the County government and within the
same fund of the current operating budget may be authorized by the
County Commissioners by resolution.
C.
Adjustments in the County's operating or capital budget to reflect
the receipt of grant funds from the state, federal government, or
a nonprofit source in any fiscal year in which the grant funds are
received but were not included in the current operating or capital
budgets or received after the adoption of the current operating or
capital budgets may be authorized by majority vote of the County Commissioners.
D.
Adjustments in the County's operating or capital budget to reflect
the loss of grant funds from the state, federal government, or a nonprofit
source in any fiscal year in which the grant funds were anticipated
but not received may be authorized by majority vote of the County
Commissioners.
E.
By majority vote, the County Commissioners may make additional or
supplementary appropriations from unexpended and unencumbered funds
set aside for contingencies in the County budget, provided that the
County Administrator shall first certify that such funds are available
for such appropriation. No supplementary appropriation shall exceed
the amount of funds so certified. The expenditure of funds from the
contingency budget line item shall only be done where the proposed
expenditure is included in the published agenda for a County Commissioners'
meeting.
F.
Nothing contained herein shall be construed to prevent the County
Commissioners from providing, by law, for interfund cash borrowings
to meet temporary cash requirements or to prevent reimbursements among
funds for goods supplied or services rendered.
G.
Notwithstanding other requirements of this chapter, the County Commissioners
may acquire real or personal property under installment, lease-purchase,
or similar long-term arrangements by appropriating funds for each
year sufficient to meet the contractual obligations for that year.
The County shall maintain an undesignated and unrestricted minimum
general fund balance. The amount of this balance shall be at 5% of
annual operating budget expenditures or a greater amount as established
by resolution. In the event the general fund balance falls below this
minimum, the County Commissioners shall replenish the balance to the
required level within two years. In the event the fund balance exceeds
the required minimum, the County Commissioners may encumber or expend
the excess balance in accordance with this chapter.
Unless otherwise provided by law, all unexpended and unencumbered
general appropriations in the current operating budget remaining at
the end of the fiscal year shall revert into the County general fund
balance. All unexpended and unencumbered enterprise revenue shall
revert to the fund balance for the enterprise fund. No appropriation
for a capital project in the capital budget shall lapse until the
purpose for which the appropriation was made shall have been accomplished
or abandoned by the County Commissioners.
Whenever it appears to the County Administrator or the County
Commissioners that the actual and probable revenues in any fund will
be significantly less than the estimated revenues upon which appropriations
from such fund were based, or that the actual and probable expenses
in any fund will be significantly greater than the estimated expenses
upon which the budget was based, the County Administrator shall present
to the County Commissioners recommendations which, if adopted, will
prevent expenditures from exceeding available revenues for the current
fiscal year. Such recommendations shall include proposals for reducing
appropriations, increasing revenues, or both. Within 30 days of receiving
this information the County Commissioners shall amend the budget by
resolution to reduce appropriations or approve such measures as are
necessary to provide revenues sufficient to equal appropriations,
or both.
