Chap. 203.—An ACT to provide for the annual preparation and review of esti-
mates for expenditures and revenues, and to establish a budget system for
Shenandoah county, and to prohibit the board of supervisors of said county
from appropriating or expending, or contracting to expend, any sums of
money for any county purpose greater than the amount allowed by and fixed
for the same in each annual budget. and to provide for the laying and fix-
ing of the county levy, school levy and other levies authorized or required
by law, during the month of April of each year when the budget for said
county 1s adopted. [fH B 443]

Approved March 18, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That during
the month of April of each year, either at the regular meeting of the
yoard of supervisors of Shenandoah county, held on the second Mon-
Jay of each April, or at any special meeting set for the purpose on or
yefore the twenty-first day of April, the said board of supervisors of
Shenandoah county shall make up an estimate and adopt a budget
of expenditures and appropriations for all county purposes, which
yudget shall be under the headings and classifications and in itemized
orm, as is hereinafter provided, for the next fiscal year, beginning
fuly first of each year, or beginning at such other date as may be
srovided by law for the beginning of the fiscal year.

2. On or before the thirtieth day of March of each year a com-
nittee, composed of the county clerk, chairman of the board of
supervisors, the county treasurer, the division superintendent of
chools and the commonwealth’s attorney, of which committee the
‘ounty clerk shall be the chairman, shall prepare a full and complete
ind itemized estimate of all county expenses for the next fiscal year.
The said estimate shall show the totals of all county expenses itemized
inder appropriate headings and classification as is hereinafter men-
ioned, for the past fiscal year ending June thirtieth, and the amounts,
o itemized and classified, estimated to be required for the next fiscal
‘ear. The statement of estimates so prepared or a condensation
hereof showing the totals under each heading and classification
nentioned in section three of this act, shall be printed in one or all
vewspapers published in Shenandoah county for at least one time
luring the first week in April, and copies thereof for the use of the
board of supervisors shall be filed in the clerk’s office of said county
on or before April first of each year.

3. The general headings and classifications of the estimate for
county expenses herein required to be made by said committee shall
be as follows: Roads, bridges, schools, courts, indebtedness and
sinking fund, salaries and compensation of county officers, clerk’s
office and court house, jail, county officers, agriculture, poor, alms
house, public health, general welfare, miscellaneous and incidentals,
and emergencies.

The estimate under the headings and classifications aforesaid shall
be itemized, and the budget adopted by the said board of supervisors
under this act shall be headed, classified and itemized as in this section
set forth.

4. At least once during the first week of April of each year there
shall be published in each newspaper published in Shenandoah county
a notice under the names of the chairman of the board and the county
clerk, apprising the citizens of said county that on a day named, not
later than the twenty-first day of April, the board of supervisors of
Shenandoah county, will sit at the court house to receive the estimates
of expenses provided for in section two, and to adopt and fix the budget
of appropriations and expenditures for the said county for the next
fiscal year, and to lay and fix the county levy, school levy, and all
other levies authorized or required by law.

5. At such meeting of the board of supervisors the said board
shall give a reasonable hearing to all citizens or groups of citizens
desiring to be heard both as to the budget and as to the levy but no
person shall be permitted to be heard or to speak more than ten
minutes without the consent of the majority of the board. After
such hearing is had the said board shall adopt a budget in the form
hereinbefore mentioned covering all county appropriations and ex-
penditures for the next fiscal year beginning July first, and shall also
fix the county levy, the school levy and all other levies authorized
and required by law, and both the budget and the levies shall be spread
upon the minutes of the said board. The said board may recess or
adjourn from day to day, or from time to time, as it may deem proper,
before the final adoption of the county budget and the laying and
fixing of the levies; provided, that the final adoption of the county
budget and the laying and fixing of said levy shall not be later than
April thirtieth of each year.

6. The budget when adopted shall follow the headings and classi-
fications hereinbefore set forth, and shall be itemized as hereinbefore
mentioned, and the said board shall proceed by proper order before
final adjournment to appropriate from the revenue to be received
during the next fiscal year the respective sums allowed in said budget
for each of the headings and classifications hereinbefore mentioned.

7. The said board of supervisors in making up and fixing the
budget herein required, shall use the estimates made by the committee
hereinbefore mentioned, but the said board shall have the power and
authority to increase or decrease the estimates made by said committee
either as a whole, or as to any heading, classification or item thereof.
Any change increasing the estimate of said committee; shall require
the recorded vote of a majority of the whole board, but if on a vote
for any increase the votes stands three in favor and three opposed,
then the tie breaker provided by law shall be called to cast the deciding
vote. The decrease any estimate the recorded vote of three members
in favor thereof shall be effective, but should the vote be tied with
three in favor and three opposed, then the tie breaker shall be called
to cast the deciding vote. The person appointed tie breaker, accord-
ing to law, of the said board of supervisors shall be present at all
meetings of the board in the month of April when the budget herein
provided for and the laying and fixing of the county’s levy, is being
considered, and shaH be paid the same compensation as a supervisor
is paid for each day he is in attendance.

8. The said committee, provided for in section two, shall allow
under the heading ‘‘emergencies’’ not less than ten per centum of the
estimated county levy for the next fiscal year, and the said board of
supervisors shall adopt in the budget and shall appropriate and set
aside under the classification ‘emergencies’ not less than ten per
centum of the revenue to. be derived from the county levy, and the
said sum, if not expended for emergencies by the following March
first, may be, by order of the board, appropriated and expended for
any other county purpose.

9. After the budget herein provided for by this act has been
adopted no greater sums of money shall be appropriated or expended,
or contracted to be expended, during the next fiscal year for any
county purpose, than the respective amounts fixed and adopted in
said budget; and any three qualified voters may require the common-
wealth’s attorney of said county, to institute proper proceedings at
law or in equity, to enjoin any appropriation or expenditure, or
contract for expenditure made by said board in excess of that fixed
in the budget or to recover any such expenditure if the same has been
actually made, and the commonwealth’s attorney may institute such
proceedings on his motion.

The purpose and object of this section being to prohibit the said
beard of supervisors from appropriating, or expending, or contracting
to expend, during any fiscal year any greater sum than the totals pro-
vided in said budget under the headings and classifications mentioned
in section three; but not to prevent said board from expending less for
any item or items and more for another item or items included under
the same heading and classification, should it become necessary or
advisable so to do in the furtherance of economy and efficient admin-
istration of county affairs, or from expending any balances under said
headings and classifications remaining at the end of a fiscal year; pro-
vided, however, that should county property, including buildings,
bridges and roads, be destroyed or partially destroyed by fire, in-
cendiary or accidental, storm or act of God, or by a riot, or the public
enemy, and the amount available and set aside under the classification
and heading “‘emergencies’’, be insufficient to repair or replace the
same, the said board shall have the authority and power to repair,
replace or rebuild any such property so injured or destroyed, and for
that purpose to contract to expend during the year a greater sum of
money than is available from the amount allowed in said budget for
‘‘emergencies,’’ but the amount so expended in excess of the amount
available, shall in the next year’s budget be set aside and appropriated
therein to “emergencies” in addition to the ten per centum herein-
before required, and be paid out of the next vear’s revenues so set
aside and appropriated.

10. Should the school levy made by the said board of supervisors
in any year realize and bring into the county treasury more than the
amount allowed and fixed in the budget for ‘‘schools,’’ such excess
may be expended by the county school board during each fiscal year,
and should any other levy realize more than is fixed and appropriated
under said budget the same may be expended for any lawful purpose.

11. The heading and classification ‘‘emergencies,’’ as used in
section three and elsewhere in this act, shall include, among other
items properly classified thereunder, such unforeseen and unavoidable
happenings and disasters as destruction of bridges by floods, and
epidemics of contagious or communicable diseases, requiring unusual
expenditures for quarantine, vaccination and medical attention
thereto.

The heading and classification, ‘“‘miscellaneous and incidentals,”
shall include any and all other necessary and lawful items of county
expense not covered by, or properly included under, the headings and
classifications mentioned in section three of this act.

12. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby re-
pealed.

13. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from. its
passage.