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NOTE 1— SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUED) • Restricted Net Position — Consists of net position restricted when there are limitations imposed on their use through external restrictions imposed by creditors, grantors, or laws or regulations of other governments, or enabling legislation. • Unrestricted Net Position — All remaining net position that do not meet the definition of "restricted" or "net investment in capital assets." The City applies restricted resources first when an expense is incurred for which both restricted and unrestricted resources are available. R. Fund Balance Classifications In the fund financial statements, governmental funds report fund balance in classifications that disclose constraints for which amounts in those funds can be spent. These classifications are as follows: • Nonspendable — Consists of amounts that are not in spendable form, such as prepaid items, inventory, and other long -tern assets. • Restricted — Consists of amounts where there are limitations imposed on their use through external restrictions imposed by creditors, grantors, laws or regulations of other governments, or enabling legislation. • Committed — Consists of amounts that can be used only for the specific purposes determined by a formal action of the City's highest level of decision -making authority. The City Council is the highest level of decision -making authority for the City that can, by adoption of a resolution prior to the end of the fiscal year, commit fund balance. Once adopted, the limitation imposed by the resolution remains in place until a similar action is taken (the adoption of another resolution) to remove or revise the limitation. • Assigned — Consists of internally imposed constraints for amounts intended to be used by the City for specific purposes but do not meet the criteria to be classified as committed. Assigned amounts represent intended uses established by the City Council itself or by an official to which the City Council delegates the authority. Pursuant to City Council Resolution, the City's Finance Director is authorized to establish assignments of fund balance. The City Council may also assign fund balance as it does when appropriating fund balance to cover a gap between estimated revenue and appropriations in the subsequent year's appropriated budget. Unlike commitments, assignments generally only exist temporarily. In other words, an additional action does not normally have to be taken for the removal of an assignment. Conversely, as discussed above, an additional action is essential to either remove or revise a commitment. • Unassigned — The residual classification for the General Fund, which also reflects negative residual amounts in other funds. When both restricted and unrestricted resources are available for use, the City first uses restricted resources, then use unrestricted resources as they are needed. When committed, assigned, or unassigned resources are available for use, the City uses resources in the following order: 1) committed, 2) assigned, and 3) unassigned. S. Budgets and Budgetary Accounting Each fall the City Council adopts a General Fund budget for the following fiscal year beginning January 1. In addition, an annual budget is legally adopted for the Economic Development Authority, a nonmajor special revenue fund. The City has established budgetary control at the function level based upon GAAP serving as the basis of budgeting. Budget appropriations lapse at year-end. 68