Bill: Draft Willow Appropriations Process Act

[EmeraldGuuy]

A
BILL
To

Establish an Appropriations Process for the Town of Willow​

The residents of Willow, through their elected representatives in the Commission and the force of law ordained to that Commission by the people through the Willow Charter, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

PART I - PRELIMINARIES

1 - Short Title and Enactment
(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Willow Appropriations Process Act.'
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) This Act has been authored by EmeraldGuuy.
(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Sujal1048j.

2 - Reasons
(1) Willow needs an Appropriations Process Act.

3 - Definitions
(1) The monthly Town Budgetary Bill may be referred to as the “Appropriations Bill.”
(2) An “Appropriations Act” is an Appropriations Bill that has been passed by the Commission and People's Will.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, “government institution” shall mean any Willow Government branch.
(4) A “Fiscal Month” begins on the 1st day of that month at 05:00 UTC and ends on the 1st of the next month at 05:00 UTC (e.g. the Fiscal Month of January would start on January 1st at 05:00 UTC and end of February 1st at 05:00).
(5) A "branch" or "government branch" is one of the following:

(a) Civic Engagement
(b) Commerce
(c) Development
(d) Marshal
(e) Legal Affairs

PART II - PROCESS

4 - Budget Requests
(1) The Head of Commerce shall send the (Deputy) Mayor the amount of money that needs to be appropriated for the Commerce branch at the end of every fiscal month. The request would be for the following fiscal month.
(2) The Head of Development shall send the (Deputy) Mayor the amount of money that needs to be appropriated for the Development branch at the end of every fiscal month. The request would be for the following fiscal month.
(3) The Head of Civic Engagement shall send the (Deputy) Mayor the amount of money that needs to be appropriated for the Civic Engagement branch at the end of every fiscal month. The request would be for the following fiscal month.
(4) The Town Marshal shall send the (Deputy) Mayor the amount of money that needs to be appropriated for their branch at the end of every fiscal month. The request would be for the following fiscal month.

5 - Monthly Budgetary Process Outline
(1) A Commissioner may propose an Appropriations Bill to the Commission for approval by a simple majority in both chambers (Commission and People's Will), provided that no appropriations Act is already in effect for the Fiscal Month of said Bill.
(2) Appropriations Bills, and Bills which amend them, are not subject to any Commission bill cool-off period and may be proposed at any time.
(3) An Appropriations Bill, or a Bill which amends an Appropriations Act, is automatically urgently considered, and may be put up at any time in the Commission and People's Will.
(4) At the start of and during each Fiscal Month, if an Appropriations Bill for that Fiscal Month has been signed into law, all funds shall be returned to the GovWillow balance within 24 hours. Then, each government institution shall be distributed funds in accordance with that Fiscal Month’s Appropriations Act.
(a) In the scenario that an Appropriations Bill is not signed into law, then the most recently used Appropriations Act shall be reissued and distributed. These appropriations shall only be made to Willow branches.
(ii) If the current fiscal month's appropriations are passed after the previous fiscal month's appropriations are reissued, the positive difference in funds will be distributed. No branch shall have their monthly budget retroactively lowered.
(5) Only one Appropriations Act can be used per month. If multiple Appropriations Bills are signed into law in the same Fiscal Month, only the first to be signed shall be used to distribute appropriations in accordance with Subsection 6(4) of this Act.