Tennessee § 5-21-111 - Budget — Hearings — Supporting documents — County action — Continuing budget.

§ 5-21-111. Budget — Hearings — Supporting documents — County action — Continuing budget.

At least ten (10) days before the proposed budget is to be presented to the governing body, the budget committee shall cause to be published in a newspaper of general circulation the proposed annual operating budget. This budget shall contain a budgetary comparison for the following governmental funds: General; Highway/public works; General purpose school fund; and Debt service that shall include comparisons of the proposed budget with the current year and the prior year. The budgetary comparisons shall be by individual fund and shall summarize revenues by local taxes, state of Tennessee, federal government and other sources. Expenditures shall be summarized by salaries and other costs. The budgetary comparison shall also present beginning and ending fund balances and the number of employee positions. Such publication shall also contain a notice of a public hearing to be conducted by the budget committee at which any citizen of the county upon five (5) days' written request shall have the right to appear and state such citizen's views on the budget. The budget committee shall present the budget to the county legislative body in accordance with a calendar adopted pursuant to § 5-21-110(a) or the timeline provided in § 5-21-110(e). The proposed budget shall be accompanied by a budget message explaining the financial program and outlining the services, work and activities to be financed by the proposed budget and a brief discussion of the means proposed for financing the expenditure program set forth in the budget. With the proposed budget, the budget committee shall deliver to the county legislative body a budget appropriation resolution and a tax levy resolution. The county legislative body may alter or revise the proposed budget except as to provision for debt service requirements and for other expenditures required by law. However, when reviewing the proposed budget of the county department of education, the county legislative body may only alter or revise the total amount of expenditures as proposed and such alterations or revisions shall comply with state law and regulations. Upon alteration or revision of the proposed budget of the department of education, the director of schools shall submit a revised budget within the total expenditures approved by the county legislative body within ten (10) days. If the revised budget complies with the amount of expenditures as adopted by the county legislative body, the revised budget will become the approved budget for the county department of education. [Deleted by 2015 amendment.] After the adoption of the budget, any county department, agency or official shall be entitled to a hearing before the county legislative body in order to justify any proposed additional requests or budget estimates. The director may make quarterly allotments to any department, agency or official seeking a budget hearing in an amount not in excess of that approved in the budget for such quarter. Upon amendment of the budget, the director shall make a supplemental allotment or impound the funds of any department, agency or official to bring such appropriations in line with the amended budget. The budget, the appropriation resolution, and the tax levy resolution, as adopted, shall be spread upon the minutes of the county clerk. In the event that the local fiscal body has not adopted a budget by July 1 of any year, and until a final operating budget is adopted, the operating budget for the year just ended and the appropriation resolution for the year shall continue in effect by operation of law without further action of the county legislative body; provided, however, all agencies of the county and other entities receiving appropriated county funds shall not during any month encumber funds in excess of the allotment for a comparable month of the preceding fiscal year, unless specifically authorized to do so by resolution of the county legislative body. The authorizing resolution must identify a corresponding funding source equal to the amount of excess allotment authorized. The excess allotments so authorized shall become a part of the final operating budget. During the time that the continuation operating budget is in effect, the budget may be amended according to the procedures for amending a final operating budget, and amendments shall be made as necessary to provide for debt obligations and court-ordered expenditures. The continuing budget authorized by this subsection (h) may continue in effect for the months of July and August and, upon approval from the comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's designee after a showing of extraordinary circumstances, may continue for the month of September; provided, however, no such continuation budget may extend beyond September 30 of any fiscal year. The county shall submit justification for extending the continuing budget through the month of September to the comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's designee for approval by August 15. The comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's designee may request any additional information as may be required to properly review the continuing budget extension request. The comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's designee shall report the comptroller's approval or disapproval to the county legislative body within seven (7) business days after receipt of the request and any requested supplemental documentation, upon which the county legislative body may take action to extend the continuing budget for the month of September. The fact that the county is operating under a continuation budget shall not, by itself, be grounds for disapproval of a tax and revenue anticipation note or other comparable financing. If the county legislative body and the county school board fail to agree upon a budget for the county department of education by August 31 of any year, then, by operation of law, the budget for the county department of education shall be equal to the minimum budget required to comply with the local match and maintenance of effort provisions of the BEP. However, if for three (3) consecutive years, the county legislative body and school board fail to agree upon a budget and the department of education receives the minimum required funding for that fiscal year by operation of law, then, the budget in the third year shall include a mandatory increase that is equivalent to three percent (3%) of the required funding from local sources for schools; provided, however, this increase shall not be required if during any of those three (3) years the school board failed to submit its budget proposals in accordance with a calendar adopted pursuant to § 5-21-110(a) or the timeline provided in § 5-21-110(e). Acts 1981, ch. 325, § 11; 1991, ch. 484, § 7; 2012, ch. 775, § 1; 2015, ch. 170, §§ 3, 4; 2016, ch. 1080, §§ 15, 16. Amendments. The 2015 amendment deleted (e)(2) which read “The county legislative body shall finally adopt a budget in July.” and added (h). The 2016 amendment, effective May 20, 2016, added (i). The 2016 amendment, effective January 1, 2017, substituted “in accordance with a calendar adopted pursuant to § 5-21-110(a) or the timeline provided in § 5-21-110(e) ” for “at the regular July meeting each year or at a special session called for this purpose prior to the regular July meeting” at the end of (b). Effective Dates. Acts 2015, ch. 170, § 5. April 16, 2015. Acts 2016, ch. 1080, § 18. May 20, 2016. Acts 2016, ch. 1080, § 18. January 1, 2017. Attorney General Opinions. Constitutionality, OAG 88-202, 1988 Tenn. AG LEXIS 203 (12/2/88). A county commission violates T.C.A. § 5-21-111(e)(1) if it votes to reduce the debt service portion of the budget proposed by its budget committee after the budget committee holds a public hearing on its budget proposal and submits that proposal to the commission. OAG 14-09, 2014 Tenn. AG LEXIS 9 (1/15/14). County financial management system of 1981 — debt service requirements. OAG 15-02, 2015 Tenn. AG LEXIS 2 (1/7/15).