331.434 - COUNTY BUDGET -- NOTICE AND HEARING -- APPROPRIATIONS.
331.434 COUNTY BUDGET -- NOTICE AND HEARING -- APPROPRIATIONS. Annually, the board of each county, subject to sections 331.423 through 331.426 and other applicable state law, shall prepare and adopt a budget, certify taxes, and provide appropriations as follows: 1. The budget shall show the amount required for each class of proposed expenditures, a comparison of the amounts proposed to be expended with the amounts expended for like purposes for the two preceding years, the revenues from sources other than property taxation, and the amount to be raised by property taxation, in the detail and form prescribed by the director of the department of management. For each county that has established an urban renewal area, the budget shall include estimated and actual tax increment financing revenues and all estimated and actual expenditures of the revenues, proceeds from debt and all estimated and actual expenditures of the debt proceeds, and identification of any entity receiving a direct payment of taxes funded by tax increment financing revenues and shall include the total amount of loans, advances, indebtedness, or bonds outstanding at the close of the most recently ended fiscal year, which qualify for payment from the special fund created in section 403.19, including interest negotiated on such loans, advances, indebtedness, or bonds. For purposes of this subsection, "indebtedness" includes written agreements whereby the county agrees to suspend, abate, exempt, rebate, refund, or reimburse property taxes, provide a grant for property taxes paid, or make a direct payment of taxes, with moneys in the special fund. The amount of loans, advances, indebtedness, or bonds shall be listed in the aggregate for each county reporting. The county finance committee, in consultation with the department of management and the legislative services agency, shall determine reporting criteria and shall prepare a form for reports filed with the department pursuant to this section. The department shall make the information available by electronic means. 2. Not less than twenty days before the date that a budget must be certified under section 24.17 and not less than ten days before the date set for the hearing under subsection 3 of this section, the board shall file the budget with the auditor. The auditor shall make available a sufficient number of copies of the budget to meet the requests of taxpayers and organizations and have them available for distribution at the courthouse or other places designated by the board. 3. The board shall set a time and place for a public hearing on the budget before the final certification date and shall publish notice of the hearing not less than ten nor more than twenty days prior to the hearing in the county newspapers selected under chapter 349. A summary of the proposed budget, in the form prescribed by the director of the department of management, shall be included in the notice. Proof of publication shall be filed with and preserved by the auditor. A levy is not valid unless and until the notice is published and filed. The department of management shall prescribe the form for the public hearing notice for use by counties. 4. At the hearing, a resident or taxpayer of the county may present to the board objections to or arguments in favor of any part of the budget. 5. After the hearing, the board shall adopt by resolution a budget and certificate of taxes for the next fiscal year and shall direct the auditor to properly certify and file the budget and certificate of taxes as adopted. The board shall not adopt a tax in excess of the estimate published, except a tax which is approved by a vote of the people, and a greater tax than that adopted shall not be levied or collected. A county budget and certificate of taxes adopted for the following fiscal year becomes effective on the first day of that year. 6. The board shall appropriate, by resolution, the amounts deemed necessary for each of the different county officers and departments during the ensuing fiscal year. Increases or decreases in these appropriations do not require a budget amendment, but may be provided by resolution at a regular meeting of the board, as long as each class of proposed expenditures contained in the budget summary published under subsection 3 of this section is not increased. However, decreases in appropriations for a county officer or department of more than ten percent or five thousand dollars, whichever is greater, shall not be effective unless the board sets a time and place for a public hearing on the proposed decrease and publishes notice of the hearing not less than ten nor more than twenty days prior to the hearing in the county newspapers selected under chapter 349. 7. Taxes levied by a county whose budget is certified after March 15 shall be limited to the prior year's budget amount. However, this penalty may be waived by the director of the department of management if the county demonstrates that the March 15 deadline was missed because of circumstances beyond the control of the county.
Section History: Recent Form 83 Acts, ch 123, § 18, 209; 86 Acts, ch 1245, § 114; 91 Acts, ch 164, §1; 97 Acts, ch 206, § 16, 17, 24; 2007 Acts, ch 186, §3 Referred to in § 331.426, 331.435, 331.907, 333A.4