Connecticut General Statutes 4-89 – Appropriations; treatment of unexpended balances at close of fiscal year
(a) No officer, department, board, commission, institution or other agency of the state shall, after the close of any fiscal year, incur, or vote or order or approve the incurring of, any obligation or expenditure under any appropriation made by the General Assembly for any fiscal year that had expired at the time the obligation for such expenditure was incurred. The Comptroller is authorized to draw warrants or process interdepartmental transactions against the available appropriations made for the current fiscal year for the payment of expenditures incurred during the prior fiscal year for which appropriations were made or in fulfillment of contracts properly made during such prior year, and the Treasurer is authorized to pay such warrants or record such interdepartmental transactions. The balances of certain appropriations which otherwise would lapse at the close of any fiscal year and for which no appropriation is made in the following year shall be extended into the succeeding fiscal year to permit liquidation of obligations of the prior fiscal year.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 4-89
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- succeeding: when used by way of reference to any section or sections, mean the section or sections next preceding, next following or next succeeding, unless some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
(b) Except as provided in this section, all unexpended balances of appropriations made by the General Assembly in the state budget act shall lapse at the end of the period for which they have been made and shall revert to the unappropriated surplus of the fund from which such appropriation or appropriations were made, except that any appropriation for the improvement of or maintenance work by contract on public roads, for the purchase of land or the erection of buildings or new construction or for specific projects for capital improvements and repairs, provided in the case of such specific projects allotments shall have been made by the Governor for design and construction, shall continue to be available until the attainment of the object or the completion of the work for which such appropriation was made, but in no case for more than six years unless renewed by act of the General Assembly.
(c) All unexpended balances of special appropriations made by the General Assembly for special programs, projects or studies shall lapse at the end of the period for which they have been made, except that if satisfied that the work of any such program, project or study is not completed and will continue during the following fiscal year, the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management shall order any unexpended balance remaining in the special appropriation to be continued to the ensuing fiscal year.
(d) Any appropriation made by the General Assembly for no specific period, or any unexpended balance thereof, shall lapse on June thirtieth in the fourth year after such appropriation was made, provided when the purpose for which any such appropriation was made has been accomplished or there is no further need for funds thereunder, the unexpended balance thereof, upon the written consent of the head of the department, board, commission, institution or other agency to which such appropriation was made, shall lapse and shall revert to the unappropriated surplus of the fund from which such appropriation was made.
(e) The provisions of this section shall not apply to appropriations for Department of Transportation equipment, the highway and planning research program administered by the Department of Transportation, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection equipment or the purchase of public transportation equipment, the minor capital improvement account in the Department of Administrative Services, the litigation/settlement account in the Office of Policy and Management, library or educational equipment for the constituent units of the state system of higher education, or library or educational materials for the State Library, or the state-wide tourism marketing account of the Department of Economic and Community Development. Such appropriations shall not lapse until the end of the fiscal year succeeding the fiscal year of the appropriation, provided an obligation to spend such funds has been incurred in the next preceding fiscal year, except that for the purposes of library or educational equipment or materials, such funds shall not exceed twenty-five per cent of the amount of the appropriation for such purposes.
(f) The provisions of this section shall not apply to appropriations to (1) the Office of Higher Education for (A) student financial assistance for the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program established under section 10a-173, or (B) the minority advancement program established under subsection (b) of section 10a-11, (2) the Board of Regents for Higher Education for (A) Connecticut higher education centers of excellence established under section 10a-25h, or (B) the debt-free community college program established pursuant to section 10a-174, (3) the operating funds of the constituent units of the state system of higher education established pursuant to sections 10a-105, 10a-99 and 10a-77, or (4) the Connecticut Open Educational Resource Coordinating Council established under section 10a-44d. Such appropriations shall not lapse until the end of the fiscal year succeeding the fiscal year of the appropriation except that (A) centers of excellence appropriations deposited by the Board of Regents for Higher Education in the Endowed Chair Investment Fund, established under section 10a-20a, shall not lapse but shall be held permanently in the Endowed Chair Investment Fund, (B) any moneys remaining in higher education operating funds of the constituent units of the state system of higher education shall not lapse but shall be held permanently in such funds, and (C) any appropriations to the Office of Higher Education for the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program shall not lapse but shall be held permanently for such program. On or before September first, annually, the Office of Higher Education and Board of Regents for Higher Education shall submit a report to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to appropriations and the budgets of state agencies, through the Office of Fiscal Analysis, concerning the amount of each such appropriation carried over from the preceding fiscal year.
(g) The provisions of this section shall not apply to appropriations to the Department of Aging and Disability Services in an amount not greater than the amount of reimbursements of prior year expenditures for the services of interpreters received by the department during the fiscal year pursuant to section 17a-839 and such appropriations shall not lapse until the end of the fiscal year succeeding the fiscal year of the appropriation.
(h) The provisions of this section shall not apply to appropriations to the Labor Department, from the General Fund, for the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Such appropriations shall not lapse.