Title 9 — MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

No referred ordinance or resolution may be again voted upon by the government of any municipality within one year from the date of the election thereon. Source: SDC Supp 1960, § 45.1022 as enacted by SL 1961, ch 246 .

The Legislature finds that in making past grants of decision - making authority to municipal governing authorities, its intent was to grant that authority to the governing bodies of municipalities and that such actions, unless otherwise excluded from the referendum and initiative…

A petition to propose an ordinance or resolution shall be filed with the finance officer, containing in proper form the proposed ordinance or resolution. It shall be signed by the required number of the resident registered voters of the municipality. The signer or circulator shal…

The right to initiate an ordinance shall not be applicable to ordinances proposed to nullify the purpose for which bonds have been sold by a municipality pursuant to statutory authority. Source: SL 1961, ch 247 ; SL 1980, ch 66 , § 1.

When a petition to initiate is filed with the finance officer, the finance officer shall present the petition to the governing body at its first ensuing regular or special meeting. The governing body shall submit the petition to a vote of the voters in the manner prescribed for a…

No initiated ordinance or resolution is effective unless approved by a majority of the votes cast for and against the ordinance or resolution. If approved, the ordinance or resolution is effective the day following the completion of the canvass of the election returns. Source: SL…

No initiated ordinance or resolution may be amended or repealed by the governing body of a municipality until at least one year has passed from its effective date. Source: SL 1977, ch 72 .

The required number of voters residing in any municipality may file within twenty days after the publication of any ordinance or resolution subject to referendum a petition with the auditor or clerk, requiring the submission of any such ordinance or resolution to a vote of the vo…

If the matter intended to be covered by the referendum petition is the whole of any ordinance or resolution, the petition shall contain the title of such ordinance or the subject of such resolution, and the date of its passage, but if only a portion of such ordinance or resolutio…

The referendum petition shall be signed by at least five percent of the registered voters in the municipality. The percentage shall be based on the number of registered voters of the municipality as recorded by the county auditor on the second Tuesday in January in the year the p…

Any person circulating an initiative or referendum petition shall verify that each person signing the petition is a resident and qualified voter of the municipality. The State Board of Elections shall promulgate rules pursuant to chapter 1-26 prescribing the format for an initiat…

Source: SL 2021, ch 41 , § 1.

The fiscal year of each municipality shall commence on the first day of January of each year. Source: SL 1890, ch 37 , art VII, § 7; SL 1890, ch 37 , art XV, § 1; RPolC 1903, § 1295; SL 1913, ch 119 , § 114; RC 1919, § 6333; SL 1921, ch 298 ; SDC 1939, § 45.1401.

Except as otherwise provided no contract shall be made by the governing body of any municipality and no expense shall be incurred by any department or any officer thereof, whether ordered by the governing body or not, unless an appropriation shall have been previously made concer…

The governing body may enter into a contract for any term of years as the governing body may determine with any person or any rural water system, water user district, sanitary district, water project district, or like organization for the purchase by the municipality of water, ga…

The governing body of a municipality may by resolution create a depreciation reserve within each proprietary fund, as necessary, not to exceed the accumulated depreciation of the fixed assets of the respective fund. Source: SL 1951, ch 247 , § 1; SDC Supp 1960, § 45.0201-1 (9); S…

The depreciation or the capital replacement reserves shall be used only to replace and repair equipment belonging to the municipality and may not be used for the acquisition of equipment which would represent a substantial expansion in the total amount of equipment belonging to t…

9-21-14.1 Accumulation of funds for capital outlay purposes--Maximum amount. 9-21-14.2 Vote required for capital outlay accumulation--Time of expenditure--Reversion of unused funds. 9-21-14.3 9-21-14.3 to 9-21-14.5. Repealed by SL 1989, ch 75 , §§ 2 to 4. 9-21-15 Replacement or r…

The governing body of a municipality may by resolution authorize the accumulation of funds for a period longer than one year for specific capital outlay purposes otherwise authorized by law. For the purpose of this section, capital outlay purposes means purposes which result in t…

The resolution authorized by § 9-21-14.1 shall be enacted by a two - thirds vote of the governing body and shall set forth clearly the purposes for which the funds are to be accumulated and the maximum amount that may be accumulated. The funds to be accumulated shall be expended …

No expenditure for any improvement, replacement, repair or service shall exceed in any one year the amount provided therefor in the annual appropriation ordinance of a municipality, except that the governing body may expend the proceeds of any bond issue authorized by the voters …

If the municipal corporation has on hand any unappropriated money, or money not raised by taxation, loan, or assessment, which can be spared for the purpose described in § 9-21-15 and which has not been pledged for the payment of any indebtedness of the municipality, or any money…

The governing body of a municipality may, by resolution or ordinance, establish a fund to be designated the casualty reserve fund and the governing body may, in their annual appropriation, set forth a specific amount for such fund. The amount appropriated shall be transferred to …

If any judgment is obtained against the municipality, it may borrow for a space of time not exceeding the close of the fiscal year a sum sufficient to pay the judgment, if a tax levy of ten dollars per thousand dollars of taxable valuation of the municipality will be sufficient t…

It is a Class 2 misdemeanor for the officers of any municipality, unless expressly authorized by law, to contract any debt or incur any pecuniary liability, for the payment of either the principal or interest, for which during the current year or any subsequent year it will be ne…

The provisions of § 9-21-18 or any other provision of law notwithstanding, any municipality may enter into a lease-purchase agreement for a term of years, not exceeding ten years for equipment and twenty years for an improvement to real property, for the purchase or lease by the …

The annual appropriation ordinance of each municipality shall also contain the annual tax levy, which for all purposes except park purposes shall not exceed the limitations prescribed by law. It shall apportion among the various funds provided for therein the amount levied for ge…

The governing body of each municipality shall, no later than its first regular meeting in September of each year or within ten days thereafter, introduce the annual appropriation ordinance for the ensuing fiscal year, in which it shall appropriate the sums of money necessary to m…

Immediately upon the passage and publication of the annual appropriation ordinance the auditor or clerk shall certify the tax levies therein made to the county auditor in the county in which the first or second class municipality is situated in the following form: For general pur…

No liability may be incurred against the municipality in excess of the total appropriation of the fund. No liability may be incurred under any appropriation for which a warrant cannot be drawn as herein provided. No member of the governing body may vote to incur a liability or to…

No obligation under any appropriation shall be incurred or warrant drawn in excess of seventy - five percent of the tax levy made for the fund provided for such appropriation for the current fiscal year and seventy - five percent of the cash in the treasury in such fund derived f…

In all cases where appropriations of money are authorized and made for periods longer than one year, the expenditure thereof in any one year shall never exceed the proportion which one year of time bears to the whole time, unless otherwise expressly provided. Source: SL 1890, ch …

All highway taxes collected as personal taxes from residents of any municipality and all highway taxes collected on account of real or personal property situated within any municipality by the treasurer of the county in which such municipality is located, shall be turned over qua…

The governing body may by resolution not later than its first meeting in February encumber that portion of unexpended appropriations from the prior year for which applicable obligations were incurred but were not paid. The resolution shall state the appropriation account and amou…

Except as herein provided no money belonging to any fund shall ever be diverted to the use of any other fund, and no warrant shall be drawn upon any fund not properly chargeable to such fund. Source: SL 1913, ch 119 , § 118; RC 1919, § 6341; SDC 1939, § 45.1413; SL 1939, ch 187 ;…

The amount to be budgeted for the contingency pursuant to § 9-21-6.1 shall be included in the appropriation for the municipal governing body out of general fund revenues. When transfers are made from the contingency budget to other appropriations, whose revenue is provided by oth…

9-21-26.1 Transfer of surplus funds--Restrictions. 9-21-27 Transfer of bond redemption funds allowed if certain amount is retained. 9-21-28 Transfer to school districts of surplus from revenue-producing enterprises--Transfer to funds. 9-21-29 Transfer by county of funds received …

The governing body may by a two - thirds vote transfer the surplus money in any of the several funds to any other fund or funds or may appropriate such surplus money to the payment of any outstanding indebtedness of the municipality. No money in any fund may be transferred unless…

No balance remaining at the end of any fiscal year in any fund raised for the purpose of paying the principal or interest upon the bonded indebtedness of the municipality may be transferred to any other fund unless enough money is retained in the fund to retire all outstanding bo…

Authority is hereby granted to all municipalities to transfer surplus funds accumulated through special municipal revenue producing enterprises to public school districts operating within the municipality; provided such transfer of funds shall be made through a majority vote of t…

The county treasurer shall transfer, by the twentieth day of the month, all money received during the prior month on behalf of the municipality to each municipality. Whenever any funds which have been collected by the county for the municipality from taxes or from any other sourc…

No money belonging to any municipality shall be appropriated except for such objects and the defraying of such expenses as necessarily arise in the exercise of the powers granted to it. Source: PolC 1877, ch 24, § 24; CL 1887, § 1045; RPolC 1903, § 1443; RC 1919, § 6345; SDC 1939…

The county auditor shall, by the twentieth day of the month, transfer all money received during the prior month on behalf of each municipality to each municipality. Any county failing to distribute the receipts within the time prescribed is subject to an interest charge of one pe…

The governing body of a municipality may by ordinance create a capital replacement reserve fund or account for general fixed assets, not to exceed fifty percent of the value of the general fixed assets. Source: SL 1994, ch 69 , § 1.

The governing body of a municipality may by resolution create an internal service fund to provide for the acquisition of equipment. Moneys may be budgeted and transferred to the fund from any source which may lawfully be used for such purpose, including equipment usage charges on…

The governing body of a municipality may contribute sums of money to provide general operating and capital support to any technical college and other career and technical education purposes. The funds necessary to execute this section may be appropriated from the municipal genera…

A municipality may move the deadline for introducing the annual appropriation or budget, contained in § 9-21-2 and subdivision 9-10-15 (5), as applicable, to as late as the first regular meeting of the governing board in November. Each municipality that opts to move the deadlines…

If a municipality opts to move the budget deadlines, the provisions of § 9-21-20 do not apply. On or before October first, after notice and hearing on the requested levies, the municipal finance officer shall certify the tax levies to the county auditor in the county that the mun…

9-21-5 Appropriations for support of Civil Air Patrol. 9-21-6 Classification of expenditures in annual appropriation ordinance. 9-21-6.1 Line item for contingencies--Maximum amount--Transfer to other appropriations. 9-21-7 Supplemental appropriation ordinance for indispensable fu…

The governing bodies of municipalities may contribute sums of money annually to the support of units of the Civil Air Patrol located in their respective municipalities. For the purposes of carrying out the provisions of this section, such governing bodies may appropriate out of t…