As used in this act:

1. "Account" means a columnar record in which are entered the increases and decreases of related monetary transactions and the resulting balance thereof. Accounts are maintained within each fund, classified by categories appropriate thereto;

2. "Appropriation" means an authorization and allocation of money to be expended for a given function, activity or particular purpose;

3. "Board" means the county budget board created by this act;

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. "Budget" may refer to the budget of a particular fund for which a budget is required by law or it may refer collectively to the budget for such funds;

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. "County" means any county government and all its agencies, instrumentalities, departments, offices, boards or commissions, which by resolution of the governing body has elected to come under and comply with all of the provisions and requirements of this act;

8. "County officer" means the county clerk, county commissioner, county assessor, district court clerk, county treasurer or county sheriff;

9. "Current year" means the year in which the budget is prepared and adopted, i.e., the fiscal year next preceding the budget year;

10. "Deficit" means the excess of the liabilities, reserves, including encumbrances, and contributions of a fund over its assets, as reflected by its book of account;

11. "Department" means a functional unit within a fund, such as a sheriff's department or a health department;

12. "Estimated revenue" means the amount of revenues estimated to be received during the budget year from each source in each fund for which a budget is being prepared. Estimated revenue includes any appropriated fund balance as a separate item in the budget of revenues for a particular fund for the budget year;

13. "Fiscal year" means the annual period for reporting fiscal operations, which begins and ends on dates as the Legislature provides;

14. "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, or as otherwise defined in current generally accepted accounting principles;

15. "Fund balance" means the excess of the assets of a fund over its liabilities, reserves, including encumbrances, and contributions, as reflected by its book of account;

16. "Governing body" means the board of county commissioners of the county;

17. "Immediate prior fiscal year" means the year next preceding the current year;

18. "Levy" means to impose ad valorem taxes or the total amount of ad valorem taxes imposed for a specific purpose or for a given entity; and

19. "Operating reserve" means that portion of the fund balance which has not been appropriated in a budget year. The "operating reserve" will be equivalent to the "unappropriated fund balance" in any fund for which a budget is prepared.

Added by Laws 1981, c. 166, § 4, emerg. eff. May 13, 1981. Amended by Laws 1986, c. 135, § 4, emerg. eff. April 17, 1986; Laws 1993, c. 239, § 15, eff. July 1, 1993.