MIN CHC 1989-04-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Legislature is part of the process , and counties don' t have individual taxing authority, such as a general excise tax, piggyback taxing authority, or some other power to raise its revenues to carry out its function, it seems to me logical that the budget process . . . there ' s gonna be certain standard things , but that the budget process is gonna to have to await legislative action to some degree. That being the case, and the Legislature finishing when it does at the end of April , would it be. . . is there anything wrong in having a different fiscal year that starts later which would then provide for greater public input or more time for the administration and more time for the Council to do it? Would that be possible? Is there a problem, I mean, with saying, well we ' re going to make a fiscal year July 30th. Does that generate any accounting problems or . . . MIZUNO: Not that I 'm aware of. BETHEA: Uh-huh. Well , but I ask you to think about that and see whether or it you think it would be easier. And then again, subject to interruptions , let me ask a few more questions . L'ORANGE: Mr. Chairman, before you get on. . . out of that , I think that one problem is the state fiscal year is June 30th. You know, if the County has a different fiscal year and you' re using state funds , I think there may be a problem. I know there are problems with stuff in the federal government because the federal fiscal year is September 30, which doesn' t match with the state or the county' s . So I 'm not sure that your solution solves the budget problem but it may create other problems for the. . . MIZUNO: Yes , and you' re right , it does create a little bit of a problem with our federal grants because of the different fiscal years . But we do get around it. BETHEA: Well , Mr. L 'Orange may have a very good thought about the problem. Perhaps you could take a look at it and see whether you think. . . to what degree there is a problem. MIZUNO: I will . BETHEA: Let me go on, because as I have said, the way I 've seen this thing structured, it doesn' t look like. . .maybe we need to change it. I 'm not taking a position on it. It doesn' t look like the type of a setup that expects the County Council to get into the details that they have been getting in and trying to administer funds that they appropriated. 266