Budget and budget bylaws; municipalities

While cameralistics focuses on income and expenditure in the financial year and thus on a liquidity analysis, double-entry accounting primarily aims to show the consumption of resources (expenses, income, depreciation and amortization), to allocate obligations on an accrual basis (e.g. creation of provisions) and to show the asset situation of the municipality, including the legally and economically independent units associated with it.

The content, annexes and components of the budget are based on the accounting system. They are intended to provide an overview of the status and development of the local authority's budget and enable the local authority to manage its administration.

The budget is the binding basis for the budget management of the respective municipality; it must be balanced. The budget plan contains all income expected to be generated in the financial year for the fulfillment of the tasks

• income to be received, incoming payments, expenses to be incurred and payments to be made (in the case of budget management according to the principles of double-entry municipal accounting),
• expected income and expenditure to be incurred (in the case of budget management according to the principles of cameralistics),
• required commitment authorizations.

In the case of budget management according to the principles of double-entry municipal accounting, the budget consists of

• the overall budget, which in turn consists of
  • the profit budget
  • the financial budget
  • an overview of the income and expenses of the sub-budgets of the operating budget and the incoming payments, outgoing payments and commitment appropriations of the sub-budgets of the financial budget as a budget cross-section,
  • an overview for assessing the long-term performance,
• the sub-budgets and
• the staffing plan;

and, in the case of budget management according to the principles of cameralistics, from

• the overall plan,
• the individual budgets of the administrative budget and the capital budget,
• the collective statements and
• the establishment plan for civil servants and employees.

In the case of budget management according to the principles of double-entry municipal accounting, the budget plan must be accompanied by

1. the preliminary report,
2. the medium-term financial plan (Art. 70 GO, Art. 64 LKrO) with the investment program on which it is based; if there are significant changes for the following years when the budget is drawn up, a corresponding addendum must be attached,
3. an overview of the payments expected to fall due from commitment appropriations in the individual years; if payments fall due in years not yet covered by the financial plan, it must be shown that the future budget balance is not jeopardized,
4. an overview of the expected status of liabilities from bonds, borrowings and legal transactions that are economically equivalent to borrowings, provisions and reserves at the beginning of the financial year,
5. the most recent consolidated annual financial statements,
6. an overview of the budget appropriations carried over from previous years,
7. the business plans and most recent annual financial statements of the special assets for which special accounts are kept; the same applies to companies with a shareholding of more than 50%; the business plans and most recent annual financial statements may be replaced by an overview of the economic situation and the expected development of the companies and institutions,
8. an overview of the budgets

In the case of budget management according to the principles of cameralistics, the budget must be accompanied by

1. the preliminary report,
2. an overview of the expenditure expected to fall due from commitment appropriations in the individual years; if expenditure falls due in years not yet covered by the financial plan, the expected coverage of the expenditure requirements for these years must be shown separately,
3. an overview of the expected level of debt (excluding cash advances) and reserves at the beginning of the financial year,
4. the business plans and most recent annual financial statements of the special assets for which special accounts are kept; the same applies to companies with a shareholding of more than 50%; the annual financial statements and business plans may be replaced by a brief overview of the economic situation and the expected development of the companies,
5. the medium-term financial plan (Art. 70 GO, Art. 64 LKrO) with the investment program on which it is based,
6. an overview of the budgets with a designation of the sections and subsections allocated to the individual budgets

The budget, stating

• the total amount of income and expenditure for the financial year and the resulting balance of the income budget, the total amount of incoming and outgoing payments from current administrative activities, from investment activities and from financing activities for the financial year and the resulting balance of the financial budget in the case of budget management according to the principles of double-entry municipal accounting or
• the total amount of income and expenditure in the case of budget management according to the principles of cameralistics

and

• the total amount of the planned commitment appropriations,
• the total amount of planned borrowing for investments and investment promotion measures (credit authorizations) and furthermore
• the maximum amount of cash advances and
• the levy rates, which are to be set anew for each financial year,

are determined in the budget bylaws in the double-entry system as in the cameralistic system.

The municipal council, district council or district assembly adopts the budget statutes and their annexes in a public meeting.

The budget bylaws and their annexes must be submitted to the respective legal supervisory authority no later than one month before the start of the financial year.

Budget bylaws with components requiring approval must be officially published immediately after approval. Budget bylaws without such components must be officially published at the earliest one month after submission to the respective legal supervisory authority, unless the legal supervisory authority objects to the bylaws. At the same time, the budget must be made publicly accessible for one week; reference must be made to this in the official announcement of the budget bylaws.