17B-1-612. Accumulated fund balances — Limitations — Excess balances — Unanticipated excess of revenues — Reserves for capital projects.
(1)
Terms Used In Utah Code 17B-1-612
Appropriation: means an allocation of money by the board of trustees for a specific purpose. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
Budget: means a plan of financial operations for a fiscal year which embodies estimates of proposed expenditures for given purposes and the proposed means of financing them, and may refer to the budget of a particular fund for which a budget is required by law or it may refer collectively to the budgets for all such funds. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Budget year: means the fiscal year for which a budget is prepared. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Current year: means the fiscal year in which a budget is prepared and adopted, which is the fiscal year next preceding the budget year. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Deficit: has the meaning given under generally accepted accounting principles as reflected in the Uniform Accounting Manual for Special Districts. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Estimated revenue: means the amount of revenue estimated to be received from all sources during the budget year in each fund for which a budget is being prepared. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Fund: has the meaning given under generally accepted accounting principles as reflected in the Uniform Accounting Manual for Special Districts. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Fund balance: has the meaning given under generally accepted accounting principles as reflected in the Uniform Accounting Manual for Special Districts. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
General fund: is a s defined by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board as reflected in the Uniform Accounting Manual for All Local Governments prepared by the Office of the Utah State Auditor. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
Retained earnings: has the meaning given under generally accepted accounting principles as reflected in the Uniform Accounting Manual for Special Districts. See Utah Code 17B-1-601
Special district: means a limited purpose local government entity, as described in Section 17B-1-103, that operates under, is subject to, and has the powers described in:
United States: includes each state, district, and territory of the United States of America. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
(a)
A special district may accumulate retained earnings or fund balances, as appropriate, in any fund.
(b)
For the general fund only, a special district may only use an accumulated fund balance to:
(i)
provide working capital to finance expenditures from the beginning of the budget year until general property taxes or other applicable revenues are collected, subject to Subsection (1)(c);
(ii)
provide a resource to meet emergency expenditures under Section 17B-1-623; and
(iii)
cover a pending year-end excess of expenditures over revenues from an unavoidable shortfall in revenues, subject to Subsection (1)(d).
(c)
Subsection (1)(b)(i) does not authorize a special district to appropriate a fund balance for budgeting purposes, except as provided in Subsection (4).
(d)
Subsection (1)(b)(iii) does not authorize a special district to appropriate a fund balance to avoid an operating deficit during a budget year except:
Except as provided in Subsection (2)(b), the accumulation of a fund balance in the general fund may not exceed the most recently adopted general fund budget, plus 100% of the current year‘s property tax.
(b)
Notwithstanding Subsection (2)(a), a special district may accumulate in the general fund mineral lease revenue that the special district receives from the United States under the Mineral Lands Leasing Act, 30 U.S.C. § 181 et seq., through a distribution under:
If the fund balance at the close of any fiscal year exceeds the amount permitted under Subsection (2), the district shall appropriate the excess in accordance with Section 17B-1-613.
(4)
A special district may utilize any fund balance in excess of 5% of the total revenues of the general fund for budget purposes.
(5)
(a)
Within a capital projects fund, the board of trustees may, in any budget year, appropriate from estimated revenue or fund balance to a reserve for capital projects for the purpose of financing future specific capital projects, including new construction, capital repairs, replacement, and maintenance, under a formal long-range capital plan that the board of trustees adopts.
(b)
A special district may allow a reserve amount under Subsection (5)(a) to accumulate from year to year until the accumulated total is sufficient to permit economical expenditure for the specified purposes.
(c)
A special district may disburse from a reserve account under Subsection (5)(a) only by a budget appropriation that the special district adopts in accordance with this part.
(d)
A special district shall ensure that the expenditures from the appropriation budget accounts described in this Subsection (5) conform to all requirements of this part relating to execution and control of budgets.
