Minnesota Session Laws - 1989, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1989 

                        CHAPTER 240-S.F.No. 1101 
           An act relating to St. Louis county; regulating budget 
          procedures; providing for certain recorder's fees; 
          allowing the county to assess the cost of maintenance 
          of television relay service; proposing coding for new 
          law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 383C; repealing 
          Minnesota Statutes 1988, sections 383C.01, 383C.011, 
          383C.012, 383C.013, 383C.014, 383C.015, 383C.016, 
          383C.017, 383C.018, and 383C.019. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  [383C.021] [BUDGET AND FINANCIAL 
ADMINISTRATION.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [DUTIES OF THE COUNTY BOARD.] The county 
board shall annually adopt a budget for the next fiscal year.  
The budget shall be a complete financial plan for the year.  The 
board may create fund accounts in accordance with generally 
accepted accounting principles and state and federal laws and 
rules to account for the assets, liabilities, revenues, and 
expenditures of the county.  
    Subd. 2.  [FORMAT.] The board may use any combination of 
expenditure classifications by fund, organization, program, 
purpose, or activity.  The budget shall begin with a general 
summary of its contents and shall detail all estimated revenues, 
including the property tax levy, and all estimated expenditures, 
including debt service, for the next fiscal year.  The total of 
estimated expenditures for the next fiscal year shall not exceed 
the total of estimated revenues and any surplus amounts expected 
to be available at the end of the current fiscal year.  Amounts 
in funds unexpended at the end of the fiscal year may be carried 
over from one fiscal year to the next in accordance with 
generally accepted accounting principles.  Unexpended amounts 
may be restricted by the board to finance contingent obligations 
which may become payable in subsequent fiscal years. 
    Subd. 3.  [OPERATING BUDGET.] The budget shall include 
information showing operating revenues, expenditures, and 
personnel for the fiscal year.  
    Subd. 4.  [CAPITAL BUDGET.] The budget shall include the 
capital expenditures proposed for the fiscal year by project and 
the proposed method and plan of financing of each capital 
project.  
    Sec. 2.  [383C.022] [CAPITAL PROGRAM.] 
    The board may also prepare a five-year capital program to 
include:  
    (1) a clear, general summary of its contents; 
    (2) a list of all capital improvements which are proposed 
to be undertaken during the next five fiscal years, with 
appropriate supporting information as to the necessity for the 
improvements; 
    (3) cost estimates, method of financing, and recommended 
time schedules for each improvement; and 
    (4) the estimated cost of operating and maintaining the 
facilities to be constructed or acquired.  
    The information may be revised and extended each year with 
regard to capital improvements still pending or in the process 
of construction or acquisition.  
    Sec. 3.  [383C.023] [REDUCTION OF APPROPRIATIONS.] 
    If the maximum rate of taxation for the various purposes 
mentioned in the budget, for which the county may levy taxes, 
together with the estimated amount of other county revenues for 
the ensuing year, and the unappropriated fund balance does not 
equal the total amount of the budget, the county shall reduce 
the several funds mentioned in the budget.  The items for bonds, 
interest on bonds, salaries, and other items, the charges for 
which are fixed by law, shall remain at the full amount that the 
law requires. 
    Sec. 4.  [383C.024] [APPROPRIATIONS AND TAX LEVY.] 
    The county board shall adopt the budget by resolution which 
shall constitute appropriation of the amounts specified in the 
budget as expenditures from the funds indicated.  It shall also 
adopt by resolution a levy of the tax proposed in the budget. 
    Sec. 5.  [383C.025] [AMENDMENTS.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS.] The board 
may make supplemental appropriations during a budget year.  The 
appropriations may authorize the use and expenditure of amounts 
accruing to the county which were not previously anticipated as 
revenues by the board in the adoption of the budget.  
    Subd. 2.  [CHANGES IN APPROPRIATIONS.] The board may by 
resolution modify the adopted budget or the appropriation to a 
department or fund, or transfer amounts from one department or 
fund to another except as otherwise restricted by law. 
    Sec. 6.  [383C.026] [LAPSE OF APPROPRIATIONS.] 
    Each appropriation, except an appropriation for a capital 
expenditure, lapses at the close of the fiscal year to the 
extent that it has not been expended or encumbered.  Amounts in 
funds unexpended at the end of the fiscal year may be carried 
over from one fiscal year to the next in accordance with 
generally accepted accounting principles. 
    An appropriation for a capital expenditure continues in 
force until the purpose for which it was made has been 
accomplished or abandoned.  The purpose of a capital expenditure 
appropriation is abandoned if three years pass without a 
disbursement from or encumbrance of the appropriation. 
     Sec. 7.  [383C.027] [ADMINISTRATION OF BUDGET.] 
     Subdivision 1.  [RECORDS; RULES.] A record of every 
appropriation shall be kept by the county auditor, or by an 
officer, agent, or employee designated by rule, which will at 
all times show the amount of any appropriation which has been 
expended, contracted, or obligated, and the remaining 
unencumbered amount which is available for expenditure, to the 
extent necessary to enable every officer, agent, or employee who 
has authority to incur an obligation to know whether incurring 
an additional obligation will exceed the appropriation.  The 
auditor shall make and may amend rules governing in detail the 
manner in which boards, commissions, administrative officers, 
and employees of the county incur, record, and report 
obligations as reasonably necessary to regulate the keeping of 
the records required by this section and to enable the auditor 
to determine and certify whether an obligation is within and 
pursuant to an appropriation made as required by sections 1 to 
6.  The rules, upon adoption by the county board, shall bind all 
boards, commissions, officers, agents, and employees.  No 
contract or obligation shall be valid for any purpose unless it 
is incurred, recorded, reported, and certified in accordance 
with the rules.  No claim or payroll shall be presented to the 
county board or other board, commission, or agency for 
allowance, or allowed unless it has been audited by the auditor 
and certified by the auditor to have been incurred within and 
pursuant to an appropriation as required by sections 1 to 6.  
The auditor shall not certify a claim or payroll without 
ascertaining that it has been so incurred.  No claim or payroll 
shall be allowed or paid until certified by the auditor.  Before 
certifying any claim or payroll, the auditor shall ascertain 
that the goods or services have actually been received by the 
county as shown by a receiving report or time record signed by 
an officer, agent, or employee who has personal knowledge that 
the goods or services were received or furnished to the county.  
A person who falsely or fraudulently signs a receiving report or 
time record is personally liable to the county for any loss 
sustained. 
    Subd. 2.  [PAYMENTS AND OBLIGATIONS PROHIBITED.] No payment 
shall be made or obligation incurred against an allotment or 
appropriation except in accordance with an appropriation duly 
made in the adopted budget.  An authorization of payment or 
incurring of obligation in violation of this section is void and 
a payment so made is illegal. 
    Subd. 3.  [ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES.] The county shall use 
generally accepted accounting principles in the management of 
its accounting records. 
     Sec. 8.  [383C.725] [RECORDER'S FEES.] 
     In St. Louis county the following fees supersede those 
provided by the cited provisions of Minnesota Statutes: 
    Section 357.18, clause (1), a minimum fee of $15.  
    Sec. 9.  [383C.808] [TELEVISION SERVICE; ST. LOUIS COUNTY.] 
    St. Louis county may assess the cost of maintenance of 
television relay service upon residents of the following 
townships in St. Louis county who use the service:  T67N, R19W; 
T67N, R20W; T67N, R21W; T68N, R19W; T68N, R20W; T68N, R21W; 
T69N, R19W; T69N, R20W; T69N, R21W; T70N, R19W; T70N, R20W; 
T70N, R21W; T71N, R20W; T71N, R21W.  The costs shall be assessed 
annually against improved property and may be billed directly to 
them or collected with the property tax levied on real property 
owned by users.  The costs must not be apportioned on the value 
of the property, but on the basis of the services provided.  If 
the assessment is billed directly, it may be collected in the 
same manner as any other debt.  If the assessment is collected 
with the property tax, it shall be administered as far as 
possible in the same manner as the property tax and be subject 
to the same penalties and conditions. 
     Sec. 10.  [REPEAL.] 
     Minnesota Statutes 1988, sections 383C.01, 383C.011, 
383C.012, 383C.013, 383C.014, 383C.015, 383C.016, 383C.017, 
383C.018, and 383C.019, are repealed. 
    Sec. 11.  [LOCAL APPROVAL.] 
    This act takes effect the day after the St. Louis county 
board complies with Minnesota Statutes, section 645.021, 
subdivision 3. 
    Presented to the governor May 19, 1989 
    Signed by the governor May 22, 1989, 8:22 p.m.