Section 16-13-144 Prohibition and Penalty for Exceeding Budget; Waiver of Penalty.

(a) No local board of education shall spend or obligate itself to spend more money in any fiscal year than the estimate of income available to that board of education for that year, plus balances on hand at the beginning of the fiscal year, which estimate shall be approved by the State Superintendent of Education, if the excess expenditure or excess obligation to spend results in a deficit for that fiscal year, except as provided in Section 16-13-145. The estimate of income shall include estimates of income from revenue receipts from all sources and estimates of nonrevenue receipts from all sources, but excluding all funds derived from loans other than loans obtained by the issuance of school warrants authorized by the laws of the state. This section shall not apply to any fiscal year where there is proration of education funds going to local boards of education. No funds shall be transferred by any board of education from salary allocations to any other expenditure or for any other purpose. In times of proration, salaries shall not be subject to proration. (b)(1) If a local board of education in any fiscal year violates this section, the State Superintendent of Education shall reduce in the succeeding fiscal year the allotment from the Foundation Program Fund to which the local board of education is otherwise entitled an amount equal to one-fourth of the deficit. (2) The State Superintendent of Education may waive all or part of the penalty if the school system has made a substantial effort to remove the deficit and agrees to develop an approved financial plan. (c) If any local superintendent at any time makes a financial statement to his or her local board of education or to the State Superintendent of Education in which the superintendent purposely misrepresents the amount of the deficit or obligations outstanding of his or her local board of education, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) and not more than five hundred dollars ($500).