(A) Pursuant to the Municipal Proprietary Function Act, the governing body may prepare a proprietary budget statement for its proprietary functions separate and apart from its municipal budget statement prepared pursuant to the Nebraska Budget Act. For purposes of this section, PROPRIETARY FUNCTION shall mean a water supply or distribution utility, a wastewater collection or treatment utility, an electric generation, transmission or distribution utility, a gas supply, transmission or distribution utility, an integrated solid waste management collection, disposal or handling utility, or a hospital or a nursing home owned by the municipality.
(B) The governing body may establish a separate fiscal year for each proprietary function, except that any proprietary function which is subsidized by appropriations from the municipality’s General Fund shall have the same fiscal year as the municipality. For purposes of this section, SUBSIDIZATION shall mean that the costs of operation of a proprietary function are regularly financed by appropriations from the municipality’s General Fund in excess of the amount paid by the municipality to the proprietary function for actual service or services received.
(C) (1) If the municipality does not include its proprietary functions in its municipal budget statement, a proposed proprietary statement shall be prepared in writing on forms provided by the State Auditor and filed with the Municipal Clerk-Treasurer, at least 30 days prior to the start of the fiscal year of each proprietary function, containing the following information:
(a) For the immediate two prior fiscal years, the revenue from all sources, the unencumbered cash balance at the beginning and end of the year, the amount received by taxation, and the amount of actual expenditure;
(b) For the current fiscal year, actual and estimated revenue from all sources separately stated as to each such source, the actual unencumbered cash balance available at the beginning of the year, the amount received from taxation, and the amount of actual and estimated expenditure, whichever is applicable;
(c) For the immediately ensuing fiscal year, an estimate of revenue from all sources separately stated as to each such source, the actual or estimated unencumbered cash balance, whichever is applicable, to be available at the beginning of the year, the amounts proposed to be expended during the fiscal year, and the amount of cash reserve based on actual experience of prior years; and
(d) A uniform summary of the proposed budget statement which shall include a total of all funds maintained for the proprietary function.
(2) Such statement shall contain the estimated cash reserve for each fiscal year and shall whether or not such reserve is encumbered. The cash reserve projections shall be based upon the actual experience of prior years.
(D) (1) After the proposed proprietary budget statement is filed with the Municipal Clerk- Treasurer, the governing body shall conduct a public hearing on such statement. Notice of the time and place of the hearing, a summary of the proposed proprietary budget statement, and notice that the full proposed proprietary budget statement is available for public review with the Municipal Clerk-Treasurer during normal business hours, shall be published at least five days prior to the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation within the governing body’s jurisdiction or by mailing each resident within the governing body’s jurisdiction.
(2) After such hearing, the proposed proprietary budget statement shall be adopted or amended and adopted as amended, and a written report shall be kept of such hearing. If the adopted proprietary budget statement reflects a change from the proposed proprietary statement presented at the hearing, a copy of the adopted proprietary budget statement shall be filed with the Municipal Clerk-Treasurer within 20 days after its adoption and published in a newspaper of general circulation within the governing body’s jurisdiction or by mailing to each resident within the governing body’s jurisdiction.
(E) If the actual expenditures for a proprietary function exceed the estimated expenditures in the proprietary budget statement during its fiscal year, the governing body shall adopt a proprietary function reconciliation statement within 90 days after the end of such fiscal year which reflects any difference between the adopted proprietary budget statement for the previous fiscal year and the actual expenditures and revenue for such fiscal year. After the adoption of a proprietary function reconciliation statement, it shall be filed with the Municipal Clerk-Treasurer and published in a newspaper of general circulation within the governing body’s jurisdiction or by mailing to each resident within the governing body’s jurisdiction. If the difference between the adopted proprietary budget for the previous fiscal year and the actual expenditures and revenues for such fiscal year is greater than 10%, the proprietary function reconciliation statement shall only be adopted following a public hearing.
(F) Any income from a proprietary function which is transferred to the General Fund of the municipality shall be shown as a source of revenue in the municipal budget statement created pursuant to the Nebraska Budget Act.
(1997 Code, § 1-805)
Statutory reference:
Authority or similar provisions, see Neb. RS 18-2803 to 18-2808