Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 17 > Chapter 7 > Part 3 - Supplemental Appropriations, Encumbrances, and Reversions

• 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
• 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

• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Program: means a principal organizational or budgetary unit within an agency. See Montana Code 17-7-102
• proposed supplemental appropriation: means an application for authorization to make expenditures during the first fiscal year of the biennium from appropriations for the second fiscal year of the biennium. See Montana Code 17-7-301
• Requesting agency: means the agency of state government that has requested a specific budget amendment. See Montana Code 17-7-102
• Several: means two or more. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• 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
• Supplemental appropriation: Budget authority provided in an appropriations act in addition to regular or continuing appropriations already provided. Supplemental appropriations generally are made to cover emergencies, such as disaster relief, or other needs deemed too urgent to be postponed until the enactment of next year's regular appropriations act.