CS for SB 224 Summary

• Establishes budget posting requirements on official websites for counties, municipalities, special districts, school boards, and water management districts, including tentative budgets at least 2 days before hearings and final budgets within 30 days after adoption.

• Reduces audit report submission deadlines from 12 months to 9 months after fiscal year end and requires auditors to file reports with the Auditor General within 45 days of delivery to the audited entity.

• Adds criteria for declaring special districts inactive, including failure to maintain a registered office and agent on file with the Department of Community Affairs for 1 or more years.

• Requires greater budget detail and specificity, including budgeted revenues and expenditures by organizational unit at levels matching annual financial report requirements, and specifies standardized expenditure categories (personnel services, operating expenses, capital outlay, debt service, grants and aids, and other uses).

• Authorizes the Department of Community Affairs and Department of Management Services to seek writs of certiorari to enforce special district compliance with financial reporting and actuarial requirements after exhausting other procedures.