Montana Code 17-7-402. Budget amendment requirements
17-7-402. Budget amendment requirements. (1) Except as provided in subsection (7), a budget amendment may not be approved:
Terms Used In Montana Code 17-7-402
- Additional services: means different services or more of the same services. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- Agency: means all offices, departments, boards, commissions, institutions, universities, colleges, and any other person or any other administrative unit of state government that spends or encumbers public money by virtue of an appropriation from the legislature under 17-8-101. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- 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
- Approving authority: means :
(a)the governor or the governor's designated representative for executive branch agencies;
(b)the chief justice of the supreme court or the chief justice's designated representative for judicial branch agencies;
(c)the speaker for the house of representatives;
(d)the president for the senate;
(e)appropriate legislative committees or a designated representative for legislative branch agencies; or
(f)the board of regents of higher education or its designated representative for the university system. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- Budget amendment: means a temporary appropriation as provided in Title 17, chapter 7, part 4. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Emergency: means a catastrophe, disaster, calamity, or other serious unforeseen and unanticipated circumstance that has occurred subsequent to the time that an agency's appropriation was made, that was clearly not within the contemplation of the legislature and the governor, and that affects one or more functions of a state agency and the agency's expenditure requirements for the performance of the function or functions. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
- Program: means a principal organizational or budgetary unit within an agency. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- Requesting agency: means the agency of state government that has requested a specific budget amendment. See Montana Code 17-7-102
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(a)by the approving authority, except a budget amendment to spend:
(i)additional federal revenue;
(ii)additional tuition collected by the Montana university system;
(iii)additional revenue deposited in the internal service funds within the department or the office of the commissioner of higher education as a result of increased service demands by state agencies;
(iv)Montana historical society enterprise revenue resulting from sales to the public;
(v)additional revenue that is deposited in funds other than the general fund and that is from the sale of fuel for those agencies participating in the Montana public vehicle fueling program established by Executive Order 22-91;
(vi)revenue resulting from the sale of goods produced or manufactured by the industries program of an institution within the department of corrections;
(vii)revenue collected for the administration of the state grain laboratory under the provisions of Title 80, chapter 4, part 7;
(viii)revenue collected for the Water Pollution Control State Revolving Fund Act under the provisions of Title 75, chapter 5, part 11;
(ix)revenue collected for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Act under the provisions of Title 75, chapter 6, part 2;
(x)state special revenue adjustments required to allocate costs for leave or terminal leave within an agency in accordance with federal circular A-87;
(xi)revenue generated from fees collected by the department of justice for dissemination of criminal history record information pursuant to Title 44, chapter 5, part 3; or
(xii)additional state special funds identified in Chapter 573, Laws of 2021, as being eligible for budget amendments for the fiscal years beginning July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022;
(b)by the approving authority if the budget amendment contains any significant ascertainable commitment for any present or future increased general fund support;
(c)by the approving authority for the expenditure of money in the state special revenue fund unless:
(i)an emergency justifies the expenditure;
(ii)the expenditure is authorized under subsection (1)(a); or
(iii)the expenditure is exempt under subsection (5);
(d)by the approving authority unless it will provide additional services;
(e)by the approving authority for any matter of which the requesting agency had knowledge at a time when the proposal could have been presented to an appropriation subcommittee, the house appropriations committee, or the senate finance and claims committee of the most recent legislative session open to that matter, except when the legislative finance committee is given specific notice by the approving authority that significant identifiable events, specific to Montana and pursuant to provisions or requirements of Montana state law, have occurred since the matter was raised with or presented for consideration by the legislature; or
(f)to extend beyond June 30 of the last year of any biennium, except that budget amendments for federal funds may extend to the end of the federal fiscal year.
(2)A general fund loan made pursuant to 17-2-107 does not constitute a significant ascertainable commitment of present general fund support.
(3)Subject to subsection (1)(f), all budget amendments must itemize planned expenditures by fiscal year.
(4)Each budget amendment must be submitted by the approving authority to the budget director and the legislative fiscal analyst.
(5)Money from nonstate or nonfederal sources that would be deposited in the state special revenue fund and that is restricted by law or by the terms of a written agreement, such as a contract, trust agreement, or donation, is exempt from the requirements of this part.
(6)An appropriation for a nonrecurring item that would usually be the subject of a budget amendment must be submitted to the legislature for approval during a legislative session between January 1 and the senate hearing on the budget amendment bill. The bill may include authority to spend money in the current fiscal year and in both fiscal years of the next biennium.
(7)A budget amendment to spend state funds, other than from the general fund, required for matching funds in order to receive a grant is exempt from the provisions of subsection (1).