2020 Georgia Code
Title 45 - Public Officers and Employees
Chapter 12 - Governor
Article 4 - Office of Planning and Budget
Part 1 - Management of Budgetary and Financial Affairs
§ 45-12-71. Definitions

As used in this part, the term:

1. "Annual operating budget" means the operating budget for each budget unit which details the appropriations passed by the General Assembly for that budget unit.
2. "Appropriation" means an authorization by the General Assembly to a budget unit to expend, from public funds, a sum of money not in excess of the sum specified, for the purposes specified in the authorization and under the procedure described in this part.
3. "Appropriation Act" means an Act of the General Assembly which authorizes the expenditure of state money.
4. "Budget" means the complete financial plan for the fiscal year as proposed in the budget report and modified and adopted by appropriation and revenue Acts.
5. "Budget allotment" means a process of authorizing the withdrawal of state funds from the treasury based on a determination that the budget allotment request is consistent with an approved work program.
6. "Budget class" means one of the kinds of expenditures denoting a class of service or commodities purchased or properties acquired as specified in the classification of expenditures provided for in this part for use in expenditure accounting, in the making of budget estimates, and in the budget reports and budgets.
7. "Budget estimate" means the statement with accompanying explanations, as provided in this part, in which a budget unit states its financial requirements and requests appropriations.
8. "Budget message" means the required statement by the Governor to the General Assembly after its convening which gives a summary description of the Governor's proposed financial policies and plans contained in the budget report, together with recommendations for additional revenues, if any.
9. "Budget report" and "program budget report" mean recommendations of the Governor to the General Assembly as to financial plans and expenditures to be authorized and agency program information, with the accompanying statements and explanations provided for in this part.
10. "Budget unit" means a department, institution, agency, or other unit of organization for which separate appropriations are made.
11. "Core businesses" means broad policy areas that a budget unit was created to address. These are fundamental activities or groups of activities critical to the organization's overall mission.
12. "Outcome measure" means quantitative and qualitative indicators by which the performance of a program can be assessed against adopted goals and objectives.
13. "Program" means a discrete set of activities undertaken to carry out an agency's core businesses.
14. "Strategic planning" means the process through which a preferred future direction and organizational mission are established and periodically updated in light of changing trends and issues and goals, objectives, and strategies are adopted and implemented to guide an organization toward that preferred future direction.
15. "Tax expenditure" means any statutory provision which exempts, in whole or in part, any specific class or classes of persons, income, goods, services, or property from the impact of established state taxes, including but not limited to tax deductions, tax allowances, tax exclusions, tax credits, preferential tax rates, and tax exemptions. Such term shall also include any expenditure of state tax proceeds to local governments for homeowner tax relief grants or local government assistance grants authorized by or required by any provision of Article VII of the Constitution.

(Code 1933, § 40-402, enacted by Ga. L. 1962, p. 17, § 1; Ga. L. 1993, p. 1914, § 2; Ga. L. 2005, p. 976, § 1/HB 509; Ga. L. 2010, p. 193, § 1/SB 206.)

- Ga. L. 1993, p. 1914, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'Budget Accountability and Planning Act of 1993.'"

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

"Tax expenditures" are different from "appropriations".

- It is clear that "tax expenditures" are different from "appropriations," and only the latter involve money taken from the state treasury. The Georgia Qualified Education Tax Credits', O.C.G.A. § 48-7-29.16, represent money appropriated from the state treasury; however, it does not involve the distribution of public funds out of the state treasury because none of the money involved ever becomes the property of the State of Georgia. Gaddy v. Ga. Dep't of Revenue, 301 Ga. 552, 802 S.E.2d 225 (2017).

Cited in Georgia Ass'n of Educators v. Harris, 403 F. Supp. 961 (N.D. Ga. 1975); Briarcliff Haven, Inc. v. Department of Human Resources, 403 F. Supp. 1355 (N.D. Ga. 1975).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Expenditures not mandated.

- An appropriation Act does no more or no less than authorize a maximum amount of funds to be spent for specified objects; it does not mandate such expenditures. 1973 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 73-80.

- The actual power of a public agency to spend public money for particular activities or purposes must be pursuant to a general law, not an appropriation Act. 1973 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 73-80.

- The term "budget unit" does not depend upon whether the General Assembly appropriates money to a unit of organization defined only by the General Appropriations Act; a budget unit is a unit of organization to which appropriations may be made separate from an appropriation to any other unit of organization; whether the General Assembly may do so depends upon whether the unit of organization has authority under general law, independent of the authority of any other unit of organization under general law, to spend public funds. 1974 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 74-107.

- "Budget unit" as defined in Ga. L. 1962, p. 17, § 1 (see now O.C.G.A. § 45-12-71) and as used in Ga. L. 1962, p. 17, § 1 (see now O.C.G.A. § 45-12-77) means a state department or agency which has, under general law, an independent existence and thus authority to receive and expend an appropriation; the Motor Vehicle Commission is such an agency. 1974 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 74-107.