As used in this act, except as provided in Section 4 of this act:
1. "Account" means an entity for recording specific revenues or expenditures, or for grouping related or similar classes of revenues and expenditures and recording them within a fund or department;
2. “Appropriated fund balance” means any fund balance appropriated for a fund for the budget year;
3. "Appropriation" means an authorization to expend or encumber revenues and fund balance of a fund;
4. "Budget" means a plan of financial operations for a fiscal year, including an estimate of proposed expenditures for given purposes and the proposed means for financing them;
5. "Budget summary" means a tabular listing of revenues by source and expenditures by fund and by department within each fund for the budget year;
6. "Budget year" means the fiscal year for which a budget is prepared or being prepared;
7. "Chief executive officer" means the mayor of an aldermanic city or a strong-mayor-council city, the mayor of a town, or the city manager or chief administrative officer as it may be defined by applicable law, charter or ordinance;
8. "Current year" means the year in which the budget is prepared and adopted, or the fiscal year immediately preceding the budget year;
9. "Deficit" means the excess of a fund's current liabilities and encumbrances over its current financial assets as reflected by its books of account;
10. "Department" means a functional unit within a fund which carries on a specific activity, such as a fire department or a police department within a general fund;
11. "Estimated revenue" means the amount of revenues estimated to be received during the budget year in each fund for which a budget is prepared;
12. "Fiscal year" means the annual period for reporting fiscal operations which begins and ends on dates as the Legislature provides or as provided by law;
13. "Fund" means an independent fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of accounts to record cash and other financial resources, together with all liabilities, which are segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives;
14. "Fund balance" means the excess of a fund's current financial assets over its current liabilities and encumbrances, as reflected by its books of account;
15. "Governing body" means the city council of a city, the board of trustees of a town, or the legislative body of a municipality as it may be defined by applicable law or charter provision;
16. "Immediate prior fiscal year" means the year preceding the current year;
17. "Levy" means to impose ad valorem taxes or the total amount of ad valorem taxes for a purpose or entity;
18. "Operating reserve" means that portion of the fund balance which has not been appropriated in a budget year; and
19. "Municipality" means any incorporated city or town.
Added by Laws 1979, c. 111, § 4. Amended by Laws 1980, c. 226, § 2, emerg. eff. May 27, 1980; Laws 1995, c. 166, § 1, emerg. eff. May 4, 1995; Laws 2002, c. 98, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2002; Laws 2006, c. 314, § 2, eff. July 1, 2006.