BUDGET PROCESS
The
County Manager develops budget guidelines for operating departments for the
upcoming fiscal year. These guidelines
are based, in part, on revenue and expenditure estimates developed by the
Department of Management and Finance (DMF), Budget Section. This section also prepares an operating
budget manual with forms and instructions for use by departments in preparing
budgets.
Operating departments prepare expenditure and revenue
budgets. The DMF Budget Section is chiefly responsible for developing revenue
budgets for taxes and other revenues not directly under the control of an
operating department.
The
County Board develops budget planning estimates which set limits on expenditure
levels based on preliminary revenue and expenditure forecasts developed by the
budget section of DMF. The County
Manager is in charge of presenting a proposed budget within the planning
estimates established by the County Board.
After
proposed budgets are submitted by departments, the DMF Budget Section and the County
Manager review and discuss the proposed departmental budgets and, after
negotiations with the departments, agree on a final amount for presentation to
the County Board in the County Manager's proposed budget.
The
proposed budget includes a pay-as-you-go capital budget funded from current
operations. A six-year capital
improvement program is developed and approved separately from the operating
budget. The School Board prepares a
separate operations budget, supported to a large degree by transfers from the
County general fund.
The
County Board conducts budget work sessions with each department and holds
public hearings prior to final adoption of the budget and setting of tax rates
for the upcoming fiscal year.
After
adoption, the budget is updated in the budget system and then loaded to the
accounting system into a chart of accounts.
Annual appropriations are adopted for the general, utilities, special
revenue and internal service funds.
Appropriations are controlled at the department level in the general
fund, although appropriations are loaded to agency, activity and object code
levels within the department.
The
County Board must approve changes to adopted appropriation levels. These changes can be in the form of
allocations from previously established contingent accounts, appropriations
from new or additional revenues, especially grants from the state or federal
government, and from reappropriations from a previous fiscal year. These changes, when approved by the County
Board, are loaded to the financial system on revenue budget and expense budget
forms (RB's and EB's) through DMF, which acts as the control for supplemental
appropriations. Approved supplemental
appropriations are noted in the County Board minutes for the particular County
Board meeting. DMF tracks these adjustments on a balancing spreadsheet.
Operating
departments, as well as DMF staff, regularly monitor financial reports and
on-line financial tables for comparing actual results to budgeted amounts. Special detailed financial reviews are
completed and presented to the County Board at mid-year (mid-year review) and
at the end of the fiscal year (closeout report). Funds not spent in one fiscal year may be reappropriated in a
subsequent fiscal year.
Departments
are charged with making sure that approved budget levels reflect any
supplemental appropriations approved by the County Board. In addition, with DMF concurrence, funds may
be moved from object code to object code or from one activity to another as
long as the departmental appropriation is not changed. No County Board approval is required for
these internal reallocations.
Budgetary Basis:
The budgets of the general government fund types, which
include the General Fund, Special Revenue Funds, and General Capital Projects
Fund, are prepared on a modified-accrual basis of accounting. Under this basis, obligations are recorded
as expenditures, but revenues are generally recognized if they are received
within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year.
The Enterprise Funds (Utilities, Ballston Public Parking
garage), Internal Service, and Pension Trust Fund are recorded using the
accrual basis of accounting- revenues are recorded when earned and expenditures
are recorded when the associated payables liabilities are incurred.
The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) shows the
status of the County's finances on the basis of generally accepted accounting
principles ("GAAP"). Effective with
Fiscal Year 2002, in order to be in compliance with GAAP, the County is
required to display its financial statements in two ways. In one set of
statements, the "Government-wide Financial Statements", all funds are reported
using the accrual basis of accounting, similar to the Enterprise Funds. In the other set of statements, the "Fund
Financial Statements", the governmental fund types (General and Special Revenue
Funds) are reported using the modified-accrual basis of accounting.
In most cases, this second set of statements conforms to the
way the County prepares its budget.
Exceptions include the following:
- Depreciation
expense is recorded on a GAAP basis only.
- Compensated
absence liabilities, expected to be liquidated with expendable available
financial resources, are accrued as earned by employees (GAAP) as opposed to
being expended when paid (budget).
- Principal
payments on long-term debt, within the Enterprise Funds, are applied to the
outstanding liability on a GAAP basis as opposed to being expended on a
budgetary basis.
- Capital
outlays within the Enterprise Funds are recorded as assets on a GAAP basis and
expended on a budgetary basis.
