The most significant of these are as follows: The LGBFCA imposes several additional requirements on what may or must be included in the budget ordinance. It is the summary document that aggregates the detailed projections about revenues and line item expenditures for the coming fiscal year. 159-13 requires that the governing board make appropriations by “department, function, or project” and list revenues by “major source.” Thus, the official budget ordinance often comprises only a few pages. There is no prescribed format for the budget ordinance, however G.S. The budget ordinance must be balanced such that the sum of (reasonably) estimated net revenues and appropriated fund balance equals appropriations. 159-26(b)(7)), or intergovernmental service fund ( G.S. ” The only exceptions to this “all inclusive” requirement are for moneys accounted for in a (capital or grant) project ordinance ( G.S. 159-8, prohibits the expenditure of “any moneys, regardless of their source (including moneys derived from bond proceeds, federal, state, or private grants or loans, or special assessments), except in accordance with a budget ordinance. The Local Government Budget and Fiscal Control Act (LGBFCA), specifically G.S. Because of that, generally all moneys received and expended by a local government or public authority must be included in the budget ordinance. The budget ordinance is the legal basis of the budgetary accounting system, the standard by which proposed expenditures are measured. What must be included in the budget ordinance? The annual budget ordinance is the official document adopted by a local government’s or public authority’s governing board to levy taxes and appropriate revenues for the fiscal year. This post provides a brief overview of the applicable procedural requirements and addresses frequently asked questions about the budgeting process. Local governments across the state are scrambling to finalize and adopt their budgets before July 1.