As used in 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. "Appropriation" means an authorization and allocation of money to be expanded for a purpose;

3. "Board" means the board of directors of a fire protection district;

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 expenditure, by fund and by department within each fund for a budget year;

6. "Budget year" means the fiscal year for which a budget is prepared or being prepared;

7. "Current year" means the year in which the budget is prepared and adopted, or the fiscal year immediately preceding the budget year;

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

9. "Department" means a functional unit within a fund which carries on a specific activity;

10. "District" means a fire protection district;

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. Revenue includes any appropriated fund balance in the budget of revenues for a fund for the budget year;

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

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

14. "Fund balance" means the excess of the assets of a fund over its liabilities, reserves, contributions and encumbrances, as reflected by its books of accounts;

15. "Immediate prior fiscal year" means the fiscal year preceding the current year;

16. "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 1987, c. 202, § 4, eff. June 1, 1987. Amended by Laws 1989, c. 222, § 3, operative July 1, 1989.