2011 Missouri Revised Statutes
TITLE X TAXATION AND REVENUE
Chapter 141 Delinquent Taxes--First Class Counties and St. Louis City
Section 141.770. Annual budget--public hearing--administrative costs, how paid--fiscal year--payment of claim by land trust--performance audits permitted, when (charter counties).

141.770. 1. Each annual budget of the land trust shall be itemized as to objects and purposes of expenditure, prepared not later than December tenth of each year with copies delivered to the county and city that appointed trustee members, and shall include therein only such appropriations as shall be deemed necessary to meet the reasonable expenses of the land trust during the forthcoming fiscal year. That budget shall not become the required annual budget of the land trust unless and until it has been approved by the governing bodies of the county or city that appointed trustee members. If either of the governing bodies of the county and city that appointed trustee members fail to notify the land trust in writing of any objections to the proposed annual budget on or before December twentieth, then such failure or failures to object shall be deemed approval. In the event objections have been made and a budget for the fiscal year beginning January first has not been approved by the governing bodies of the county and city on or before January first, then the budget for the previous fiscal year shall become the approved budget for that fiscal year. Any unexpended funds from the preceding fiscal year shall be deducted from the amounts needed to meet the budget requirements of the forthcoming year.

2. Copies of the budget shall be made available to the public on or before December tenth, and a public hearing shall be had thereon prior to December twentieth, in each year. The approved and adopted budget may be amended by the trustee members only with the approval of the governing bodies of the county and city that appointed trustee members.

3. If at any time there are not sufficient funds available to pay the salaries and other expenses of such land trust and of its employees, incident to the administration of sections 141.210 to 141.810, including any expenditures authorized by section 141.760, funds sufficient to pay such expenses shall be advanced and paid to the land trust upon its requisition therefor, fifty percent thereof by the county commission of such county, and the other fifty percent by all of the municipalities in such county as defined in section 141.220, in proportion to their assessed valuations at the time of their last completed assessment for state and county purposes. The land trust shall have power to requisition such funds in an amount not to exceed twenty-five percent of the total annual budget of the land trust from such sources for that fiscal year of the land trust for which there are not sufficient funds otherwise available to pay the salaries and other expenses of the land trust, but any amount in excess of twenty-five percent of the total annual budget in any fiscal year may be requisitioned by and paid to the land trust only if such additional sums are agreed to and approved by the county commission and the respective municipalities in such county so desiring to make such payment. All moneys so requisitioned shall be paid in a lump sum within thirty days after such requisition or the commencement of the fiscal year of the land trust for which such requisition is made, whichever is later, and shall be deposited to the credit of the land trust in some bank or trust company, subject to withdrawal by warrant as herein provided.

4. The fiscal year of the land trust shall commence on January first of each year. Such land trust shall audit all claims for the expenditure of money, and shall, acting by the chairman or vice chairman thereof, draw warrants therefor from time to time.

5. No warrant for the payment of any claim shall be drawn by such land trust until such claim shall have been approved by the land commissioner and shall bear the commissioner's certificate that there is a sufficient unencumbered balance in the proper appropriation and sufficient unexpended cash available for the payment thereof. For any certification contrary thereto, such land commissioner shall be liable personally and on the commissioner's official bond for the amounts so certified, and shall thereupon be promptly removed from office by the land trustees.

6. In addition to the annual audit provided for in section 141.760, the land trust may be performance audited at any time by the state auditor or by the auditor of any home rule city with more than four hundred thousand inhabitants and located in more than one county that is a member of the land trust. The cost of such audit shall be paid by the land trust, and copies shall be made available to the public within thirty days of the completion of the audit.

(L. 1943 p. 1029 42, A.L. 1945 p. 1761, A.L. 1945 p. 1926, A.L. 2002 H.B. 1634)

Annotation Copyright Missouri Joint Committee on Legislative Research