§ 159-11. Preparation and submission of budget and budget message.
§ 159‑11. Preparation and submission of budgetand budget message.
(a) Upon receipt of the budget requests and revenue estimatesand the financial information supplied by the finance officer and departmentheads, the budget officer shall prepare a budget for consideration by thegoverning board in such form and detail as may have been prescribed by thebudget officer or the governing board. The budget shall comply in all respectswith the limitations imposed by G.S. 159‑13(b), and unless the governingboard shall have authorized or requested submission of an unbalanced budget asprovided in subsection (c) of this section, the budget shall be balanced.
(b) The budget, together with a budget message, shall besubmitted to the governing board not later than June 1. The budget and budgetmessage should, but need not, be submitted at a formal meeting of the board.The budget message should contain a concise explanation of the governmentalgoals fixed by the budget for the budget year, should explain important featuresof the activities anticipated in the budget, should set forth the reasons forstated changes from the previous year in program goals, programs, andappropriation levels, and should explain any major changes in fiscal policy.
(c) The governing board may authorize or request the budgetofficer to submit a budget containing recommended appropriations in excess ofestimated revenues. If this is done, the budget officer shall present theappropriations recommendations in a manner that will reveal for the governingboard the nature of the activities supported by the expenditures that exceedestimated revenues.
(d) The budget officer shall include in the budget a proposedfinancial plan for each intragovernmental service fund, as required by G.S. 159‑13.1,and information concerning capital projects and grant projects authorized or tobe authorized by project ordinances, as required by G.S. 159‑13.2.
(e) In each year in which a general reappraisal of real propertyhas been conducted, the budget officer shall include in the budget, forcomparison purposes, a statement of the revenue‑neutral property tax ratefor the budget. The revenue‑neutral property tax rate is the rate that isestimated to produce revenue for the next fiscal year equal to the revenue thatwould have been produced for the next fiscal year by the current tax rate if noreappraisal had occurred. To calculate the revenue‑neutral tax rate, thebudget officer shall first determine a rate that would produce revenues equalto those produced for the current fiscal year and then increase the rate by agrowth factor equal to the average annual percentage increase in the tax basedue to improvements since the last general reappraisal. This growth factorrepresents the expected percentage increase in the value of the tax base due toimprovements during the next fiscal year. The budget officer shall furtheradjust the rate to account for any annexation, deannexation, merger, or similarevent. (1927, c. 146, s. 6; 1955, cc. 698, 724; 1969, c. 976,s. 1; 1971, c. 780, s. 1; 1975, c. 514, s. 4; 1979, c. 402, s. 2; 2003‑264,s. 1.)