70 ILCS 1505/17

(70 ILCS 1505/17) (from Ch. 105, par. 333.17)

Sec. 17. Fiscal year; budget report; appropriation ordinance.

(a) After the year in which this Act is adopted, the fiscal year of the Chicago Park District shall commence on the first day of January and end on the thirty-first day of December. This period shall constitute the budget year of the district. The fiscal provisions set forth in this Section shall apply only in the years following the year of the adoption of this Act.

(b) At least 60 days before the beginning of each fiscal year, the secretary shall prepare and submit to the president a budget report to the commission which shall include, among other things, a statement of proposed expenditures for the ensuing fiscal year. The statement of proposed expenditures shall show separately the amounts for ordinary recurring expenses, for extraordinary expenditures, for debt service, and for capital outlays and shall be accompanied by detailed estimates of expenditure requirements setting forth the objects of expenditure (such as personal service, contractual services, supplies and materials, and the like) and showing further classification, by character, object, or purpose, as required by the system of expenditure accounts adopted by the commission. The secretary shall also submit with his or her statement of proposed expenditures (i) a consolidated summary statement of the financial condition of the district; (ii) classified statements of income and receipts and of expenditures and disbursements for the last completed fiscal year and as estimated for the fiscal year then in progress; and (iii) a statement of the means of financing the operations of the district, indicating the cash and other current resources to be available at the beginning of the next fiscal year and the estimated cash receipts of that year. Estimated receipts from taxes levied from property shall in no event exceed an amount produced by multiplying the maximum statutory rate of tax by the last known assessed valuation of taxable property within the district as equalized for State and county taxes. The secretary shall submit, with the budget report, a draft of an appropriation ordinance and a pertinent description of the proposed financial and operating program and of its anticipated effects on the district's finances and affairs.

(c) The amounts of proposed expenditures, and of revenues for appropriations, as set forth in the proposed appropriation ordinance shall include, in addition to the other requirements for operation, maintenance, and improvement, the full amounts reasonably to be anticipated as needed for (i) interest on district debt coming due and payable, (ii) paying off principal debt maturing during the year, (iii) annual installments on sinking funds for the meeting of any anticipated cash deficit from the operations of the fiscal year then in progress, (iv) payments due to any retirement or other special funds, (v) paying off any final judgments in effect at the time, (vi) making good any deficiency in any sinking, endowment, or trust fund to be kept inviolate, and (vii) any payments for any contracts for capital improvements properly entered into during the current fiscal year or any previous fiscal year for work to be performed in the fiscal year for which the budget is prepared. These requirements shall be adequately provided for in the appropriation ordinance adopted by the commission.

(d) Upon receiving the budget report, the commission shall make the report and a tentative budget appropriation bill available to public inspection for at least 10 days by having at least 3 copies of the report and bill on file in the office of the district secretary. The commission shall hold at least one public hearing on the budget report and tentative budget appropriation bill. Seven days public notice of the hearing shall be given by at least one publication in a newspaper having a general circulation in the district.

(e) After the hearing, the commission shall consider the budget report and shall, before the beginning of the new fiscal year, adopt an annual appropriation ordinance in which the commission shall appropriate the sums of money required to meet all necessary expenditures during the fiscal year. In no event shall the aggregate amounts appropriated exceed the total means of financing. The vote of the commissioners upon the appropriation ordinance shall be taken by yeas and nays and recorded in the proceedings of the commission.

(f) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection (f), after the adoption of the appropriation ordinance, the commission shall not make any further or other appropriation before the adoption or passage of the next succeeding annual appropriation ordinance and shall have no power either directly or indirectly to make any contract or do any act that will add to the expense or liabilities of the district a sum over and above the amount provided for in the annual appropriation ordinance for that fiscal year. Notwithstanding the foregoing provision, the commission may adopt a supplemental appropriation ordinance for any corporate purpose in an amount not in excess of any additional receipts available to the Chicago Park District, or estimated to be received by the district, after the adoption of the annual appropriation ordinance. The supplemental appropriation ordinance shall, however, only affect revenue that becomes available after the annual appropriation ordinance is adopted. For purposes of supplemental appropriation ordinances, notice of the public hearing at which the ordinance is to be considered shall be given by publishing notice of the hearing at least once no less than 10 days before the hearing.

(g) When the voters have approved a bond ordinance for a particular purpose and the bond ordinance had not been passed at the time of the adoption of the annual appropriation ordinance, the commission may pass a supplemental appropriation ordinance (upon compliance with the terms of this Act) making appropriations for the particular purpose for which the bonds were authorized. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to forbid the commission from making any expenditure or incurring any liability rendered necessary to meet emergencies such as floods, fires, storms, unforeseen damages, or other catastrophes happening after the annual appropriation ordinance has been passed or adopted. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to deprive the commission of the power to provide for and cause to be paid from the district's funds any charge upon the district imposed by law without the action of the commission.

(h) The Chicago Park District shall, at any time after the beginning of each fiscal year, have power to authorize the making of transfers among appropriations within a department or other separate division under its jurisdiction or of sums of money appropriated for one object or purpose to another object or purpose. The commission shall adopt an ordinance establishing procedures by which the transfers shall be made. In no event shall transfers from appropriations for ordinary recurring expenses to appropriations for capital outlays or from capital outlays to ordinary recurring expenses be authorized or made. No appropriation for any purpose shall be reduced below an amount sufficient to cover all unliquidated and outstanding contracts or obligations certified from or against the appropriation for that purpose.

(i) No contract shall be made or expense or liability incurred by the commission, by any member or committee of the commission, or by any person or persons for or on its behalf, notwithstanding the expenditures may have been ordered by the commission, unless an appropriation for the contract, expense, or liability has been previously made by the commission in the manner provided in this Section. No officer or employee shall during a fiscal year expend, or contract to be expended, any money or incur any liability or enter into any contract that by its terms involves the expenditures of money for any purpose for which provisions are made in the appropriation ordinance in excess of the amounts appropriated in the ordinance. Any contract, verbal or written, made in violation of this Section shall be null and void as to the district, and no moneys belonging to the district shall be paid on the contract. Nothing contained in this subsection (i) shall prevent the making of contracts for the lawful purposes of the district for a period of more than one year, but any contract so made shall be executory only for the amounts for which the district may become lawfully liable in succeeding fiscal years.

(j) If, at the termination of any fiscal year or at the time when the appropriation ordinance is required to have been passed and published as provided by this Act, the appropriations necessary for the support of the district for the ensuing fiscal year have not been made, the several amounts appropriated in the last appropriation ordinance for the objects and purposes specified in that ordinance, so far as the amounts related to operation and maintenance expenses, shall be deemed to be re-appropriated for the several objects and purposes specified in the last appropriation ordinance. Until the commission acts in that behalf, the proper officer shall make the payments necessary for the support of the district on the basis of the preceding fiscal year.

(k) The appropriation ordinance shall not be construed as an approval by the commission of any contract liabilities or of any project or purpose mentioned in the ordinance but should be regarded only as a provision of a fund or funds for the payment of the liabilities, project, or purpose when contract liabilities have been found to be valid and legal obligations against such district and when properly vouchered, audited, and approved by the commission, or when any project or purpose is approved and authorized by the commission, as the case may be.

(l) During the year in which this Act is adopted, the commissioners of the Chicago Park District shall provide for the necessary expenses of the district by ordinance filed in the records of the commission, and no expenditure shall be made nor obligation incurred except pursuant to that ordinance.

(Source: P.A. 90-655, eff. 7-30-98.)