Florida Statutes
Part III - Municipal Finance and Taxation (Ss. 166.201-166.271)
166.241 - Fiscal years, budgets, appeal of municipal law enforcement agency budget, and budget amendments.

(1) Each municipality shall establish a fiscal year beginning October 1 of each year and ending September 30 of the following year.
(2) The governing body of each municipality shall adopt a budget each fiscal year. The budget must be adopted by ordinance or resolution unless otherwise specified in the respective municipality’s charter. The amount available from taxation and other sources, including balances brought forward from prior fiscal years, must equal the total appropriations for expenditures and reserves. At a minimum, the adopted 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). The adopted budget must regulate expenditures of the municipality, and an officer of a municipal government may not expend or contract for expenditures in any fiscal year except pursuant to the adopted budget.
(3) The tentative budget must be posted on the municipality’s official website at least 2 days before the budget hearing, held pursuant to s. 200.065 or other law, to consider such budget and must remain on the website for at least 45 days. The final adopted budget must be posted on the municipality’s official website within 30 days after adoption and must remain on the website for at least 2 years. If the municipality does not operate an official website, the municipality must, within a reasonable period of time as established by the county or counties in which the municipality is located, transmit the tentative budget and final budget to the manager or administrator of such county or counties who shall post the budgets on the county’s website.

(4)(a) If the tentative budget of a municipality contains a funding reduction to the operating budget of the municipal law enforcement agency, the state attorney for the judicial circuit in which the municipality is located, or a member of the governing body who objects to the funding reduction, may file an appeal by petition to the Administration Commission within 30 days after the day the tentative budget is posted to the official website of the municipality under subsection (3). The petition must set forth the tentative budget proposed by the municipality, in the form and manner prescribed by the Executive Office of the Governor and approved by the Administration Commission, the operating budget of the municipal law enforcement agency as approved by the municipality for the previous year, and state the reasons or grounds for the appeal. The petition shall be filed with the Executive Office of the Governor and a copy served upon the governing body of the municipality or to the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the municipality is located.
(b) The governing body of the municipality has 5 working days after service of a copy of the petition to file a reply with the Executive Office of the Governor and shall serve a copy of such reply to the petitioner.

(5) Upon receipt of the petition, the Executive Office of the Governor shall provide for a budget hearing at which the matters presented in the petition and the reply shall be considered. A report of the findings and recommendations of the Executive Office of the Governor thereon shall be promptly submitted to the Administration Commission, which, within 30 days, shall approve the action of the governing body of the municipality or amend or modify the budget as to each separate item within the operating budget of the municipal law enforcement agency. The budget as approved, amended, or modified by the Administration Commission shall be final.
(6) By each October 15, the municipal budget officer shall electronically submit the following information regarding the final budget and the municipality’s economic status to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research in the format specified by the office:
(a) Government spending per resident, including, at a minimum, the spending per resident for the previous 5 fiscal years.
(b) Government debt per resident, including, at a minimum, the debt per resident for the previous 5 fiscal years.
(c) Average municipal employee salary.
(d) Median income within the municipality.
(e) Number of special taxing districts wholly or partially within the municipality.
(f) Percent of budget spent on salaries and benefits for municipal employees.
(g) Annual municipal expenditures providing for the financing, acquisition, construction, reconstruction, or rehabilitation of housing that is affordable, as that term is defined in s. 420.0004. The reported expenditures must indicate the source of such funds as “federal,” “state,” “local,” or “other,” as applicable. This information must be included in the submission due by October 15, 2020, and each annual submission thereafter.

(7) The governing body of each municipality at any time within a fiscal year or within 60 days following the end of the fiscal year may amend a budget for that year as follows:
(a) Appropriations for expenditures within a fund may be decreased or increased by motion recorded in the minutes if the total appropriations of the fund is not changed.
(b) The governing body may establish procedures by which the designated budget officer may authorize budget amendments if the total appropriations of the fund is not changed.
(c) If a budget amendment is required for a purpose not specifically authorized in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b), the budget amendment must be adopted in the same manner as the original budget unless otherwise specified in the municipality’s charter.

(8) If the governing body of a municipality amends the budget pursuant to paragraph (7)(c), the adopted amendment must be posted on the official website of the municipality within 5 days after adoption and must remain on the website for at least 2 years. If the municipality does not operate an official website, the municipality must, within a reasonable period of time as established by the county or counties in which the municipality is located, transmit the adopted amendment to the manager or administrator of such county or counties who shall post the adopted amendment on the county’s website.
History.—s. 1, ch. 73-129; s. 4, ch. 83-106; s. 6, ch. 96-324; s. 14, ch. 2004-305; s. 11, ch. 2011-144; s. 8, ch. 2019-15; s. 2, ch. 2019-56; s. 7, ch. 2020-27; s. 1, ch. 2021-6.