53-2-322. County to levy taxes, budget, and make expenditures for public assistance activities. (1) Subject to 15-10-420, the board of county commissioners in each county shall levy 13.5 mills for the county poor fund as provided by law or so much of that amount as may be necessary. The board may levy up to an additional 12 mills if approved by the voters in the county. Subject to 15-10-420, a county shall levy sufficient mills to reimburse the state for any administrative or operational costs in excess of the administrative and operational costs for the previous fiscal year. The department of public health and human services shall notify the counties of the number of mills required to be levied. Once an additional levy has been approved, the amount of the approved levy may continue to be levied without voter approval.
     (2) The board shall budget and expend so much of the funds in the county poor fund for:
     (a) public assistance as necessary to reimburse the department for the county's proportionate share of the administrative costs and of all public assistance costs;
     (b) salaries, travel expenses, and indirect costs, as provided in 52-1-110, of protective services employees of the department; and
     (c) the county's proportionate share of any other public assistance activity that may be carried on jointly by the state and the county.
     (3) The amounts set up in the budget for the reimbursements to the department must be sufficient to make all of these reimbursements in full. The budget must make separate provision for each public assistance activity and for salaries, travel expenses, and indirect costs for protective services activities of the department. Proper accounts must be established for the funds for all the activities.
     (4) The department shall submit to the counties, no later than May 10, the most current county participation percentages that are necessary to establish preliminary county budgets. As soon as the county proposed budget provided for in 7-6-2315 has been agreed upon, a copy must be mailed to the department, and at any time before the final adoption of the budget, the department shall make recommendations with regard to changes in any part of the budget relating to the county poor fund as considered necessary in order to enable the county to discharge its obligations under the public assistance laws.
     (5) The department shall promptly examine the county proposed budget in order to ascertain if the amounts provided for reimbursements to the department are likely to be sufficient and shall notify the county clerk of its findings. The board shall make changes in the amounts provided for reimbursements, if any are required, in order that the county will be able to make the reimbursements in full.
     (6) The board of county commissioners may not make any transfer from the amounts budgeted for reimbursing the department without having first obtained a statement in writing from the department to the effect that the amount to be transferred will not be required during the fiscal year for the purposes for which the amounts were provided in the budget.
     (7) The county poor fund, irrespective of the source of any part of the fund, may not be used directly or indirectly for the erection or improvement of any county building as long as the fund is needed for paying the county's proportionate share of public assistance and protective services, as described in 52-1-110, or its proportionate share of any other public assistance activity that may be carried on jointly by the state and the county. Expenditures for improvement of any county buildings used directly for care of the poor, except a county hospital or county nursing home, may be made out of money in the county poor fund, whether the money was produced by the mill levy provided for in subsection (1) or from any additional levy authorized by law. The expenditure may be authorized only when any county building used for the care of the poor must be improved in order to meet legal standards required for the building by the department and when the expenditure has been approved by the department.
     (8) Money in the county poor fund may be used as matching funds for the receipt of federal money.

     History: En. Subd. (b), Sec. 11, Part 1, Ch. 82, L. 1937; amd. Sec. 8, Ch. 129, L. 1939; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 117, L. 1941; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 199, L. 1951; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 239, L. 1963; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 69, L. 1967; amd. Sec. 23, Ch. 121, L. 1974; amd. Sec. 20, Ch. 37, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 71-222; amd. Sec. 5, Ch. 625, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 14, Ch. 651, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 4, Ch. 206, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 146, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 77, Ch. 609, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 13, Ch. 561, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 157, Ch. 418, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 443, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 413, Ch. 546, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 129, Ch. 584, L. 1999.