N.Y. County Law 362 – General budgetary controls
§ 362. General budgetary controls. 1. A separate account shall be kept of each appropriation by the chief fiscal officer. Each such account shall show the amount appropriated, the amount encumbered but remaining unexpended, the several amounts expended therefrom and the unencumbered balance.
Terms Used In N.Y. County Law 362
- 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
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- 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.
- 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
2. Whenever any liability of any nature shall be incurred for or by an administrative unit, the head of such unit shall file in the office of the chief fiscal officer a written statement signed by him or his authorized agent setting forth the nature and amount of the liability, or an estimate thereof if the exact amount is unknown, and the appropriation against which it is chargeable; provided that the state comptroller may prescribe, as a part of a uniform system of keeping accounts for counties, that such written statements need not be filed in those cases where he shall determine that compliance with the requirements of this subdivision would be impractical.
3. No expenditure, or contract which in any manner involves the expenditure of money or the incurring of any pecuniary liability, shall be made or entered into by any administrative unit, officer or employee, unless an amount has been appropriated and is available therefor or has been authorized to be borrowed pursuant to the local finance law. No fund or appropriation account shall be overdrawn at any time; nor shall one fund or appropriation account be drawn upon to pay any claim chargeable to another. Nothing in this subdivision shall prevent the making of a contract or lease for a term exceeding one year when authorized by law; nor shall anything in this subdivision require a county which has entered into a contract or lease for a term exceeding one year to pay during the current fiscal year any amounts larger than those which become due and owing during that year under the terms of such lease or contract.
4. Whenever during a fiscal year it shall appear probable to the budget officer that the moneys available for such year will be insufficient to meet the amounts appropriated, he shall forthwith notify the board of supervisors of this fact, stating the probable amount of such deficiency in funds. The budget officer may include his recommendations as to the action which should be taken. The board of supervisors after such investigation as is deemed necessary may reduce any appropriation or appropriations by resolution so as to prevent the making of expenditures in excess of moneys available. Nothing in this subdivision shall permit the reduction of an appropriation below the minimum amount required by law to be appropriated, nor shall any appropriation be reduced by more than the unencumbered balance therein. This subdivision shall not apply to counties adopting the provisions of section three hundred seventy-five.