Montana Code 17-7-403. Budget amendment certification
17-7-403. Budget amendment certification. In approving a budget amendment, the approving authority shall make the following certifications and in addition shall provide all other information required below as an integral part of the certification:
Terms Used In Montana Code 17-7-403
- 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.
- 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
- Necessary: means essential to the public welfare and of a nature that cannot wait until the next legislative session for legislative consideration. 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
(1)The approving authority shall certify that:
(a)specific additional services will be provided as a result of the expenditures to be permitted under this budget amendment and shall also list each specific service to be so provided;
(b)the specific services to be provided under this budget amendment are necessary;
(c)the agency requesting this budget amendment has no other reasonable alternative available to provide the additional services. The certification must specifically include determinations by the approving authority that the agency cannot provide all or specific parts or amounts of the additional services with existing appropriations or that the agency is unable within its existing appropriations to fund all or part of the additional services from any source lawfully available to it.
(d)the budget amendment makes no ascertainable present or future significant commitment for increased general fund support.
(2)For budget amendments to spend money in the state special revenue fund, except money from nonstate or nonfederal sources that is restricted by law or by the terms of an agreement, such as a contract, trust agreement, or donation, the approving authority shall certify that an emergency justifies the expenditure and shall state the specific nature of the emergency, the date on which the requesting agency became aware of the emergency, and the manner in which the requesting agency became aware of the emergency.