This section defines key budgeting and accounting terms, and allows towns or districts to create sub-accounts if they follow the required chart-of-accounts numbering system.
In this chapter: I. "Appropriate" means to set apart from the public revenue of a municipality a certain sum for a specified purpose and to authorize the expenditure of that sum for that purpose. II. "Appropriation" means an amount of money appropriated for a specified purpose by the legislative body. III. "Budget" means a statement of recommended appropriations and anticipated revenues, prepared according to rules adopted by the commissioner of revenue administration under RSA 541-A, submitted to the legislative body by the budget committee, or the governing body if there is no budget committee, as an attachment to, and as part of the warrant for, an annual or special meeting. IV. "District" includes a school district, cooperative school district, village district, district created pursuant to RSA 53-A or 53-B, or municipal economic development and revitalization district created pursuant to RSA 162-K. V. "Purpose" means a goal or aim to be accomplished through the expenditure of public funds. In addition, as used in RSA 32:8 and RSA 32:10, I(e), concerning the limitation on expenditures, a line on the budget form posted with the warrant, or form submitted to the department of revenue administration, or an appropriation contained in a special warrant article, shall be considered a single "purpose." VI. "Special warrant article" means any article in the warrant for an annual or special meeting which proposes an appropriation by the meeting and which: (a) Is submitted by petition; or (b) Calls for an appropriation of an amount to be raised by the issuance of bonds or notes pursuant to RSA 33; or (c) Calls for an appropriation to or from a separate fund created pursuant to statute, including but not limited to a capital reserve fund under RSA 35, or trust fund under RSA 31:19-a; or (d) Is designated in the warrant, by the governing body, as a special warrant article, or as a nonlapsing or nontransferable appropriation; or (e) Calls for an appropriation of an amount for a capital project under RSA 32:7-a. VII. "Sub-account" means an optional level of accounting, one or more levels below the account level. Sub-accounts may be used to budget and track expenses when several different activities are funded by the same account. Sub-accounts may be created by the town or district under the authority of the budget committee, or the governing body if there is no budget committee, but must support the numbering classification system established in the uniform chart of accounts as established by the department of revenue administration in accordance with RSA 21-J:13, IV. Nothing in this chapter shall require the disclosure of any information or data restricted from disclosure by any other statute. VIII. "Uniform chart of accounts" means a consistent system of accounts used to categorize revenues, expenditures, assets, liabilities, and equity. It identifies the account titles, descriptions, and numbering classification system established by the department of revenue pursuant to RSA 21-J:13, IV. It provides the framework to budget, record, and report financial data logically and provide a robust basis for reporting on the results. Source: Source. 1993, 332:1, eff. Aug. 28, 1993. 1996, 214:1, eff. Aug. 9, 1996. 2003, 95:1, eff. Aug. 5, 2003. 2012, 181:1, eff. Aug. 10, 2012; 186:4, eff. June 11, 2012. 2013, 109:1, eff. Aug. 23, 2013. 2021, 134:1, 2, eff. Sept. 21, 2021.