359.49 Township budget.

Annually, a township shall prepare and adopt a budget, and shall certify taxes as follows:

1. A budget must be prepared for at least the following fiscal year. A proposed budget must show estimates of the following:

a. Expenditures from each fund.

b. Income from sources other than property taxation.

c. Amount to be raised by property taxation, and the property tax rate expressed in dollars per one thousand dollars assessed valuation.

2. By January 15 of each year, each township fire department in the township shall provide to the board of trustees a proposed budget showing all revenues and all expenses for emergency services for the next fiscal year. By January 15 of each year, each township fire department, and each municipal fire department providing emergency services to a township, shall submit to the board of trustees a report detailing emergency services calls for the prior calendar year for the fire district and a copy of the fire report filed by the fire department with the state fire marshal’s office. For purposes of this subsection, “municipal” means relating to a city, county, township, benefited fire district, or chapter 28E agency authorized by law to provide emergency services.

3. Not less than ten days before the date set for the regular meeting of the board at which objections and arguments on the budget will be heard, the clerk shall make available a sufficient number of copies of the detailed budget to meet the requests of taxpayers and organizations.

4. The board of trustees shall transmit a copy of the proposed budget and a notice of the meeting set as required by subsection 5 to the county auditor for posting. The county auditor shall post the notice and the proposed budget in an area of the courthouse where notices to the public are commonly posted.

5. The board of trustees shall set a time and place for a regular meeting before final certification of the budget, which meeting shall provide time for comments and objections to be heard on the proposed budget. The meeting shall be held no less than ten days and no more than twenty days after the proposed budget is posted by the county auditor. The county auditor shall certify to the clerk the date of posting.

6. At the meeting, any resident or taxpayer of the township may present to the board of trustees objections to any part of the budget for the following fiscal year or arguments in favor of any part of the budget.

7. After the meeting on the proposed budget, the board of trustees shall adopt by resolution a budget for at least the next fiscal year, and the clerk shall certify the necessary tax levy for the next fiscal year to the county auditor and the county board of supervisors by March 15. The tax levy certified may be less than but shall not be more than the amount estimated in the proposed budget submitted at the meeting. Two copies each of the detailed budget as adopted and of the certified tax levy must be transmitted to the county auditor by March 15.

8. a. A township that has entered into an agreement with a municipality to receive fire protection service or emergency medical service from the municipality may request that a portion of its taxes be paid directly to the municipality providing the fire protection service or emergency medical service. Each year, the township must note its request on the budget and must attach a copy of the emergency services agreement to each copy of the budget transmitted to the county auditor. The auditor shall direct the county treasurer as to what portion of the township taxes to disburse to the municipality providing the fire protection service or emergency medical service.

b. For purposes of this subsection, “municipality” means a city, county, township, benefited fire district, or agency formed under chapter 28E and authorized by law to provide emergency services.

9. Taxes from a township levy shall be collected but not disbursed by the county to a township until copies of the township budget are transmitted to the county auditor as required in subsection 7. If a township fails to certify property taxes by March 15, the amount of taxes collected by the county for the township shall be the amount collected for the township in the previous fiscal year to the extent that it does not exceed the applicable levy rate limits in this chapter. However, that amount may not exceed the amount the township could collect based on property assessments for the fiscal year for which the township failed to certify property taxes.

10. The township budget shall be prepared on forms, and pursuant to instructions, prescribed by the county finance committee in consultation with the department of management.

2000 Acts, ch 1117, §26; 2002 Acts, ch 1056, §1; 2002 Acts, ch 1175, §84; 2007 Acts, ch 139, §2; 2010 Acts, ch 1061, §180

Referred to in §331.502, 359.17