FY 25 Harford County Government Proposed Operating Budget

COUNTY BUDGET POLICIES AND PROCESS

“The Agricultural Land Preservation Fund” accounts for dedicated transfer tax revenues and provides for easement purchases of County agricultural land. “The Capital Project Fund” accounts for financial resources to be used for the acquisition or construction of major capital facilities of all major and non-major governmental funds. “The Parks and Recreation Fund” is a non-major fund which accounts for the receipts and expenditures of the self-supporting activities of the Emmorton Recreation and Tennis Center, Recreation Councils, and/or the Oakington Peninsula. “The Tax Increment Financing Fund” is a special fund for deposit of a certain portion of the real property tax collected in a development district and used to finance or reimburse the cost of special obligation bonds for certain public improvements relating to the district without constituting a general obligation of the County. “The Watershed Management Fund” is required to adopt and implement local laws necessary to establish a watershed protection and restoration program through a stormwater remediation fee. Proprietary Funds - Harford County Government maintains two different types of proprietary funds. These include: “Enterprise Funds” that are used to report the same functions presented as business type activities in the government wide financial statements. Harford County Government uses an enterprise fund to account for Water and Sewer activities. “Internal Service Funds” are an accounting device used to accumulate and allocate costs internally among Harford County Government’s various functions. Harford County Government uses an internal service fund to account for risk management. This service predominantly benefits governmental rather than business-type functions and has been included within governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. Fiduciary Funds (includes LOSAP, OPEB and PEHP) - Fiduciary funds are used to account for resources held for the benefit of parties outside the government. Fiduciary funds are not reflected in the government-wide financial statement because the resources of those funds are not available to support Harford County Government’s own programs. The accounting used for fiduciary funds is similar to that used for proprietary funds. Pension Trust Funds are a type of Fiduciary fund. The Sheriff’s Office Pension Trust Fund was established to account for the pension of certain law enforcement and correctional employees of the Office of the Sheriff of Harford County. The Firemen’s Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) was established to account for the pension system for the volunteer fire personnel serving the various independent volunteer fire companies in the County. Private Purpose Trust Funds account for resources legally held in a trustee capacity. These would include Revolving Loan Funds (accounts that provide loans to credit worthy businesses unable to obtain financing through traditional sources due to limited equity, collateral, or marginal cash flow); BVL Cooperating Parties Group (private purpose trust funds used to account for revenues collected from potentially responsible parties for the purpose of undertaking the design and construction for the Bush Valley Landfill Site); and the Bar Library Trust Fund (established to account for all expenditures associated with the operations of the Bar Library of the Circuit Court of Harford County).

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