County budgets must be prepared and approved each fiscal year and must follow detailed balancing, funding, reserve, and transfer rules.
129.01 Budget system established.—A budget system for the control of the finances of the boards of county commissioners of the several counties of the state is established as follows:(1) A budget shall be prepared, approved, adopted, and executed as prescribed in this chapter for each fiscal year. At a minimum, the budget must show for each fund, as required by law and sound financial practices, budgeted revenues and expenditures by organizational unit which are at least at the level of detail required for the annual financial report under s. 218.32(1). (2) The budget must conform to the following general directions and requirements:(a) The budget must be prepared, summarized, and approved by the board of county commissioners of each county. (b) The budget may not provide funding to any office, special district, or governmental unit exercising any power or authority allocated exclusively to a sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, or clerk of the court by the State Constitution or general law. (c) The budget must be balanced, so that the total of the estimated receipts available from taxation and other sources, including balances brought forward from prior fiscal years, equals the total of appropriations for expenditures and reserves. The budgeted receipts must include 95 percent of all receipts reasonably anticipated from all sources, including taxes to be levied, provided the percent anticipated from ad valorem levies is as specified in s. 200.065(2)(a), and is 100 percent of the amount of the balances estimated to be brought forward at the beginning of the fiscal year. The appropriations must include itemized appropriations for all expenditures authorized by law, contemplated to be made, or incurred for the benefit of the county during the year and the provision for reserves authorized by this chapter. Both the receipts and appropriations must reflect the approximate division of expenditures between countywide expenditures and noncountywide expenditures and the division of county revenues derived from or on behalf of the county as a whole and county revenues derived from or on behalf of a municipal service taxing unit, special district included within the county budget, unincorporated area, service area, or program area, or otherwise not received for or on behalf of the county as a whole. (d) Provision may be made for the following reserves:1. A reserve for contingencies may be provided which does not exceed 10 percent of the total appropriations. 2. A reserve for cash balance to be carried over may be provided for the purpose of paying expenses from October 1 of the next fiscal year until the revenues for that year are expected to be available. This reserve may not be more than 20 percent of the total appropriations. However, for the bond interest and sinking fund budget, this reserve may not exceed the total maturities of debt, both principal and interest, which will occur during the next fiscal year, plus the sinking fund requirements, computed on a straight-line basis, for any outstanding obligations to be paid from the fund. (e) An appropriation for outstanding indebtedness shall be made to provide for the payment of vouchers that have been incurred in and charged against the budget for the current year or a prior year, but that are expected to be unpaid at the beginning of the next fiscal year. The appropriation for the payment of such vouchers shall be to the same fund in which the expenses were originally incurred. (f) Any surplus arising from an excess of the estimated cash balance over the estimated amount of unpaid obligations to be carried over in a fund at the end of the current fiscal year may be transferred to any of the other funds of the county, and the amount so transferred shall be budgeted as a receipt to such other funds. However, a surplus:1. In a fund raised for debt service may not be transferred to another fund until the debt for which the fund was established has been extinguished. 2. In a capital outlay reserve fund may not be transferred to another fund until the projects for which the capital outlay reserve fund was raised have been completed and all obligations paid.