Agenda - 05-04-1999 - 7e - Laserfiche WebLink

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rmined yard of be the •embly iorizes school : oulyty 1 capi- oper - >oards d pro - nance duca- )vides school for a Je an avail- sting y the =hoot ards. nade ntire 'ient. er to hree peri- ourt is in inty. 1 be )ney axes Budget Arparation and Enacdnent 165 Either board may appeal the superior court's judgment to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. If such an appeal would otherwise cause an unreasonable de- lay in levying taxes for the current year, the superior court will order the county commissioners to appropriate to the school administrative unit for deposit in the unit's current expense fund a sum sufficient, when added to other available revenues, to equal the total revenue available for current expenses in the preced- ing year. An appeal of the school appropriation inevitably causes serious disruption in the normal process of levying, billing, and collecting property taxes. The county usually begins to prepare tax bills as soon as the commissioners adopt the bud- get and set the tax rate. As explained in Chapter 6, property taxes become due on September 1, and most counties try to have tax notices in the mail on or before that date. Interest on the current year's taxes begins to accrue on Janu- ary 6. Clearly, the tax levying and collection process cannot be delayed indefinitely while the county waits for the courts to rule on a dispute over the school budget. If it seems likely that a final decision will not be reached in time for the county to mail tax notices by the middle of October, the commissioners should proceed to adopt a budget and levy property taxes on the assumption that the county will prevail in the litigation. If the school board does, G.S. 115C -431 directs that the commissioners make any supplemental tax levy that the court's judgment may require and sets out special provisions for collecting that levy. COMMUNITY COLLEGE APPROPRIATIONS County appropriations to a community college are made to its County Cur- rent Fund budget and its Plant Fund budget. These funds are analogous to the current expense and capital outlay funds of school administrative units, and in general the fiscal interrelationship between the county commissioners and the community college trustees is similar to the arrangement for the public schools. With respect to the community college, however, the commissioners are es- sentially free to exercise their fiscal discretion without extensive oversight from state executive departments or the courts. There is no mechanism for forking the commissioners to appropriate any particular sum to the college, no provi- sion for voted supplemental taxes for it, and nothing comparable to the appor- tionment statute for school current expense. The commissioners do have the power to allocate their community college appropriations by purpose, function, or project. The allocation process and its consequences are virtually identical to those that apply to school administrative units. Appropriations for Social Services and Health9 e k able The budgeting relationships between the county commissioners and the boards of social services and health also deserve special mention. The financial affairs ' r