Title 7 — COUNTIES

The money borrowed pursuant to § 7-21-16.2 may not exceed the sum of ninety-five percent of the amount of uncollected taxes levied by the county for the current fiscal year plus other receivables of the fund, including state or federal grant moneys, that have been earned by the c…

If any registered warrants or promissory notes are outstanding against the fund for which the money is to be borrowed, the borrowing limit specified in § 7-21-16.3 is reduced by the amount of the outstanding warrants or promissory notes. Source: SL 2012, ch 53 , § 3.

The rate of interest for a promissory note authorized by § 7-21-16.2 shall be stated on the note. The note shall be signed by the chair of the board of county commissioners and by the county auditor. Source: SL 2012, ch 53 , § 4.

If a note authorized by §§ 7-21-16.2 to 7-21-16.5 , inclusive, has been issued and not paid in full within the term provided in § 7-21-16.2 , no cash receipts may be expended for any purpose except the retirement of principal and interest of notes outstanding against that fund, u…

Each contract made in violation of the provisions of § 7-21-16 is null and void in regard to any obligation thereby purported to be imposed on the county. However, any officer who made or authorized the contract is individually liable for its performance. Each officer present whe…

Before October first in each fiscal year and after the annual budget for the following fiscal year has been approved and adopted, the board shall compute and determine: (1) The total amount of all appropriations contained in the budget for the next fiscal year, and payable out of…

The total unassigned fund balance of the general fund may not exceed forty percent of the total amount of all general fund appropriations contained in the budget for the next fiscal year. Source: SL 1981, ch 56 , § 2; SL 2004, ch 70 , § 1; SL 2016, ch 46 , § 1.

Before October first in each fiscal year and after the annual budget for the following fiscal year has been approved and adopted, the board of county commissioners shall, for each particular fund out of which appropriations are payable, levy a tax that is sufficient to raise the …

It shall be the duty of the board of county commissioners of each and every county to prepare and adopt an annual budget of all of the contemplated expenditures and revenues of the county and all of its institutions and agencies for each fiscal year, save and except so much of su…

The board of county commissioners must not at any time or in any manner whatsoever make or provide for any appropriation or appropriations or for any expenditure or expenditures for any purpose, object, or item whatever, other than in and by the annual budget for the fiscal year …

Any funds made available after the final budget is adopted by a county from state and federal grants for expenditure by the county shall be paid into the county treasury and may be expended without specific provision in the annual budget of the county. In this case the commission…

In the event of an epidemic or disease or act of God, disaster, catastrophe, or accident, which results in damage to or destruction of any of the works, roads, buildings, or property of the county or any of its institutions or agencies, and the results of which have not been anti…

In the event of the passage and enactment of any law during a fiscal year and after the adoption of the annual budget for a following fiscal year, imposing some new obligation or duty upon a county, or in the event of the failure to provide by the final budget a sufficient revenu…

All of the provisions of §§ 7-21-12 to 7-21-15 , inclusive, with reference to the adoption of the resolution, signing of the resolution and budget, minute entries, and filing, shall apply to any supplemental budget made and adopted under the provisions of § 7-21-21 or §

After the approval and adoption of the annual budget as provided in § 7-21-12 , and immediately after the approval and adoption of each supplemental budget, as provided in § 7-21-21 or § 7-21-22 , the county auditor shall notify in writing before the beginning of the next fiscal …

Unless specially and expressly authorized by law, it shall be unlawful for the board of county commissioners or any member thereof, or for any officer of any county or any employee thereof in charge of any institution or agency of a county, to contract any indebtedness or incur a…

All orders, authorizations, allowances, contracts, payments, or agreements or liabilities to pay, made or attempted to be made in violation of this chapter, shall be void and shall never be the foundation of a claim against any county or against any institution or agency thereof,…

All officers, boards, and members of boards, employees, and all other persons authorizing, contracting, or incurring, or attempting to authorize, contract, or incur any indebtedness or liability for or in behalf of any county or any institution or agency thereof in violation of t…

All officers, boards, and members of boards, and employees of a county or any institution or agency thereof, authorizing, contracting, or incurring, or attempting to authorize, contract, or incur any indebtedness or liability for or in behalf of such county or institution thereof…

In all cases where appropriations of money have heretofore or may hereafter be made for periods longer than one year, it shall be unlawful for the person or persons whose duty it is to expend such appropriation to audit, expend, or contract to pay more money in any one year than …

Not later than the first day in June in each year, the county auditor must make and present to the board for its use at the meeting thereof to be held in July for consideration of the annual budget for the following fiscal year a report showing: (1) The amount of all budget appro…

All officers, boards, and members of boards, and employees of every county and of all of its agencies and institutions and all other persons and corporations, shall be charged with notice of the financial condition of the county, and of all of its institutions and agencies, the l…

Any reimbursements received for unanticipated expenditures charged to any budget activity may be considered a supplemental budget and added to the budget activity from which it was paid. The supplement shall be recorded in the minutes of the proceedings of the board of county com…

No expenditures shall be charged to the line item authorized for by § 7-21-6.1 , but such appropriated amount may be transferred, by resolution of the board, to any other appropriation in which insufficient amounts were provided or for items for which no appropriation was provide…

Whenever it shall be necessary to compute the indebtedness of a county or of any of its institutions or agencies, for bonding or other indebtedness purposes, delinquent taxes and taxes levied for the purposes set forth in the budget of the county shall not be considered an asset,…

Whenever moneys shall have been actually provided for any funds of the county by a levy of taxes and such moneys shall not have been actually collected and covered into the county treasury but concerning the receipt of which moneys there can be no question, the board of county co…

The board of county commissioners must, at its regular meeting in January of each year, ascertain and determine the total amount of taxes levied by such county on all real estate payable during the fiscal year just ended and which remained delinquent and unpaid at the close of su…

The board of county commissioners must also, at the same time, ascertain and determine the total amount of all warrants issued against each fund payable out of the appropriations for such fiscal year and which remain outstanding and unpaid at the close of such fiscal year because…

For the purpose of providing funds for the payment of outstanding warrants and claims and liabilities, the board of county commissioners may, whenever the total amount of delinquent taxes for the preceding year on real estate payable into any fund shall be more than five percent …

The certificates of indebtedness issued pursuant to § 7-21-37 shall be in substantially the same form as warrants drawn against the general fund of the county, except that they shall be known as certificates of indebtedness and each shall recite in the body thereof that it is dra…

Certificates of indebtedness issued pursuant to § 7-21-37 may be sold by the board at either public or private sale, but shall not be sold at less than their par value, or may be exchanged for such outstanding warrants, dollar for dollar with accrued interest thereon, but no brok…

All reports made by the county auditor under § 7-21-3 , after being examined by the board, shall be filed in the office of the county auditor and shall be subject to inspection and examination by all interested persons during all office hours of such county auditor. Source: SL 19…

The moneys so borrowed for each of such funds shall be deposited to the credit thereof and shall be used for the purpose of paying and redeeming the outstanding warrants drawn against such funds, and the claims and liabilities created, during such fiscal year, together with the i…

Such resolution must create a fund to be known as the "Delinquent tax fund for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 20____," and shall provide that all delinquent taxes levied during such fiscal year for the funds for which such money has been borrowed, together with all penalti…

The treasurer shall, whenever there shall be any money in any delinquent tax fund sufficient to pay one or more of the certificates of indebtedness issued against such fund with accrued interest, call the same in for payment and redemption in the same manner that warrants against…

If, after all certificates of indebtedness drawn against any delinquent tax fund shall have been fully paid, there remains any balance in such fund, such balance shall be apportioned to the several funds for which money was borrowed in proportion to the total amount of taxes levi…

All appropriations for the expenditure of public moneys contained in the annual and supplemental budgets for such fiscal year, shall cease to be in effect at the expiration of the fiscal year for which the same were made, except as provided in § 7-21-45 , and any unused balance a…

Any unused balance in the contingency budget shall revert at the close of the year and shall not be accumulated. Source: SL 1974, ch 66 , § 2.

The board of county commissioners may by resolution at its first meeting in January or within ten days thereafter encumber that portion of unexpended appropriations from the prior year for which legal obligations were incurred but were not paid. The resolution shall state the app…

Warrants issued for claims allowed against budget appropriations for the previous fiscal year which have been filed before the board's first meeting in January, shall be paid out of the fund on which drawn on the presentation to the treasurer of the county, and in case of insuffi…

The board of county commissioners may transfer the surplus moneys that may be on hand in any of the several funds to such fund or funds as they may deem for the best interest of the county or may appropriate such surplus moneys to the payment of any outstanding indebtedness of th…

Whenever there remains in the treasury of any county an unexpended balance of any special fund, and all claims against such fund have been fully paid, and the purpose for which it was created has been fully subserved, and there remains no further use for such balance for the purp…

From the estimates of revenues and expenditures made as provided for in § 7-21-3 , and from such other information as may be required and obtained by the board of county commissioners, the board of each county must, between the fifteenth and thirtieth days of July in each year, m…

A board of county commissioners may, by resolution, authorize the accumulation of funds for a period longer than one year for a capital outlay purpose which is otherwise authorized by law. For the purpose of this section, the term, capital outlay purpose, includes any purpose whi…

The governing body of any county may, by resolution, create a depreciation reserve within any proprietary fund which may only be used for capital acquisitions, not to exceed the accumulated depreciation of the fixed assets of the respective fund. If the specific purpose for which…

The provisional budget required by § 7-21-5 shall contain: (1) A detailed statement of the amount of revenues likely to be received from each and every source during the following fiscal year, the amount of revenue received from each and every source during the current fiscal yea…

In preparing the provisional budget as provided by § 7-21-6 the board of county commissioners may include in the budget a line item for contingencies. The line item shall be included in the annual budget adopted pursuant to § 7-21-12 and shall not exceed five percent of the total…

After the provisional budget has been filed in the office of the county auditor, the board of county commissioners shall publish a notice once a week for two successive weeks in the official newspapers of the county. The last notice shall be published before the first Tuesday in …

With the first notice published pursuant to § 7-21-8 , the text of the provisional budget shall also be published. The text shall include each major revenue source and expenditure classified by function, subfunction and activity as defined by the auditor general. Source: SL 1927,…

At the time and place designated in the notice required by § 7-21-8 , the board shall meet for the purpose of considering the provisional budget. The board may adjourn from day to day for further consideration. The board's minutes shall include the day and hour to which each meet…