Agenda - Council - 11/10/1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I -2- Your government should reply to any revenue sharing and financial data report forms received directly from the Census Bureau even if you customarily report the same information to another agency. To ensure prompt payment of revenue sharing funds to your government, it is most important to complete and return the required ~eport forms promptly. Your cooperation is appreciated. 1981 - 1983 Revenue Sharing Regulations Comin~ During this quarter we will be mailing current revenue sharing regulations to all governments, revised to reflect the provisions of the Amendments of 1980, the handicap discrimination requirements and other modifications as well. Please review these regulations when they arrive. Changes in them from prior regulations are explained in a preamble. Please keep these regulations in your revenue sharing file for future reference, as they will be effective through September of 1983. Use Revenue Sharin$ Funds for Specific Purposes Occasionally, we are asked if it is permissible for a local govern- ment to appropriate its revenue sharing funds to its general fund to supplement other local source general revenues. Our answer is that at the least, it is not a desirable practice, and in some instances, it may not constitute a legal appropriation of these funds under State or local law. Also, it raises questions about compliance by the government with certain requirements of the revenue' sharing regulations. These considerations are discussed below. ~ The intention of the Revenue Sharing Act, as amended, is that a recipient government utilize its revenue sharing funds for one or more specific uses. This is brought out in Section 121 of ~he amended Act in the provision for public hearings on proposed uses of these funds. It is contemplated that a recipient government will budget and/or appropriate its revenue sharing funds directly from its local revenue'sharing fund account for specific, identifiable public purpopes. This practice not only facilitates public discussion and decision-making about the uses of these funds, but it also facilitates necessary account- ing and auditing of them. By budgeting and/or appropriating revenue sharing funds as.a receipt to its general fund without further description of the specific use(s) intended, the local government'may not have complied with State and local law requirements defining a legal appropriation of public funds. One definition of an appropriation is an authorization of a legislative body to make expenditures and to incur obligations for specific purposes. Without a specific description of the purpose(s) for which revenue sharing funds have been authorized to be used, a transfer of these monies to the general fund of a local government would commin'gle them with other revenues of the government. This would not meet the requirements of the revenue sharing regulations that revenue'- · sharing funds be capable of being traced to their ultimate expenditure.