Minutes 11-09-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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3. Committed — amounts used for a specific purpose pursuant to constraints imposed by formal action of the government's highest level of decision-making authority. a. Amounts set aside based on self-imposed limitations established and set in place prior to year-end, but can be calculated after year end. b. Limitation imposed at highest level and requires same action to remove or modify c. Ordinances that lapse at year-end 4. Assigned — amounts that are constrained by the government's intent to be used for specific purposes, but are neither restricted nor committed. 5. Unassigned — amounts that are not reported in any other classification. The General Fund will be the only fund that will have an unassigned fund balance. The Special Revenue Funds and Capital Project funds will consist of only nonspendable, restricted, committed, and assigned categories of fund balance. Unassigned Fund Balance — General Fund Orange County ha adopted a fiscal policy that provides for capital projects to be financed with debt and pay-as-you-go funding. In order to obtain the best possible financing, the unit has adopted policies designed to maintain bond ratings at or better than AAA (Fitch), Aa2 (Moody's Investor Services) and AA+ (Standard and Poor's). Part of the County's fiscal health is maintaining a fund balance position that is adequate to meet the County's needs and challenges. Orange County has therefore adopted a policy that directs management to maintain an unassigned balance as follows: 1. The County will strive to maintain an unassigned fund balance in the General Fund of 17% of budgeted general fund operating expenditures each fiscal year. The amount of unassigned fund balance maintained during each fiscal year should not fall below 8% of budgeted general fund operating expenditures as recommended by the North Carolina Local Government Commission. 2. To the extent that the General Fund unassigned fund balance exceeds 17% the balances may be utilized to fund capital expenditures or pay down outstanding County debt. 3. The County's budget and revenue spending policy provides for programs with multiple revenue sources. The Finance Services Director will use resources in the following hierarchy: bond proceeds, Federal funds, State funds, local non-county funds, county funds. For purposes of fund balance classification, expenditures are to be spent from restricted fund balance first, followed in order by committed fund balance, assigned fund balance, and lastly unassigned fund balance. The Finance Services Director has the authority to deviate from this policy if it is in the best interest of the County. 4. Management is expected to manage the budget so that revenue shortfalls and expenditure increases do not impact the units total unassigned fund balance. If a catastrophic economic event occurs that requires a 10% or more deviation from total budgeted revenues or expenditures from unassigned fund balance can be reduced by action from the Board of County Commissioners; the Board will also adopt a plan on how to return spendable fund balance back to the required level.