(a) Under any procedure for amending the budget provided in this section, the budget may not be amended to reduce any expenditure required by law, and all requests for amendments to the school budgets shall be approved by the school board.

(b) Once a budget has been adopted, the budget, including line items and major categories, may be amended by passage of an amendment by a majority of the members of the county legislative body. If an official or department head is requesting the budget amendment and the amendment involves amendment of major categories of the budget, the request shall be submitted in writing to the county mayor and to each member of the county legislative body, and must be approved by the county legislative body in order to be effective. The county mayor may make a recommendation to the county legislative body regarding the requested major category amendment. The written request may be on an amendment request form, if one is specified by the county mayor, otherwise such amendment request shall specify the following:

(1) A description of the amendment, including the purpose of the amendment and why it is needed during the current fiscal year;

(2) A statement showing the cost of the amendment by budget line item with subclassifications showing specific cost elements (personnel, salaries, equipment, etc., included in the line item); and

(3) Funding sources for the expenditure itemized by federal sources, state sources, local sources or fund balance.

(c) After the adoption of a budget for the department of education, any proposed amendments to the budget submitted by the local board of education shall be approved or rejected by the county legislative body within forty (40) days of the receipt of the proposed amendments. This subsection (c) shall not apply in any county having a population of more than three hundred twenty-five thousand (325,000), according to the 2010 federal census or any subsequent federal census.

(d) In addition to approval by the county legislative body as provided in subsection (b), there are two (2) alternative methods for adopting budget amendments to line items within a major category of the budget by which an official or department head may request approval of the amendment, except that amendment requests that have been disapproved by the county legislative body may not be approved under this subsection (d). The official or department head may request approval by the method outlined in subsection (b) or subdivision (d)(2) without first requesting approval under subdivision (d)(1).

(1)

(A) The first alternative method under this subsection (d) to amend line items within a major category of the budget, except for those affecting amounts budgeted for personnel costs and amendments affecting the administrative or other expenses relating to the functioning of the county commission that require amendment by the procedure outlined in subdivision (d)(2) or that require approval by the county legislative body, is by written approval of the county mayor.

(B) Prior to the county mayor's approval, the official or department head of the office or department whose budget is to be amended shall make a written amendment request on the amendment request form specified by the county mayor to include the information outlined in subdivisions (b)(1)-(3). If the county mayor fails to approve such an amendment request, the amendment request may be approved by a budget committee created by law, by a budget committee of the county legislative body appointed by the county legislative body to approve budget amendments, or by a majority vote of the county legislative body.

(2)

(A) The second alternative method for approval of any line item amendment, including, but not limited to, any line item amendment that in any way affects amounts budgeted for personnel costs, is by approval by a budget committee created by law or a budget committee of the county legislative body appointed by the county legislative body to approve budget amendments.

(B) Prior to any budget committee's approval, the official or department head of the affected office or department shall make a written amendment request specified by the committee to include the information outlined in subdivisions (b)(1)-(3). If the budget committee fails to approve such an amendment request, the amendment request may be approved by a majority vote of the county legislative body, but may not be approved by the county mayor pursuant to subdivision (d)(1).

(e) All budget amendments approved by the county mayor or a budget committee under subsection (d) shall be reported to the county legislative body in the next financial report.

(f)

(1)

(A) This section shall apply in every county unless a county exempts itself from this section by the adoption of a resolution by December 31, 1991.

(B) This section shall not apply in any county that has adopted Acts 1989, chapter 550.

(2)

(A) In any county that has a private act or has adopted chapter 12 of this title, this section is supplemental authority for an amendment to the budget.

(B) In any county subject to this section that is under chapter 21 of this title, in addition to the requirement of this section, an official or department head shall submit a budget request to the budget committee for its recommendations to the county mayor or county legislative body, or both, for approval.

(3) This section shall not apply to local education agencies as defined in § 49-1-103.

(g) “Major categories of the budget,” as used in this section, means major categories or summary accounts in the latest uniform chart of accounts as prescribed by the comptroller of the treasury.

(h)

(1) [Deleted by 2016 amendment.]

(2) This section does not apply in any county having a population of not less than three hundred nineteen thousand six hundred twenty-five (319,625) nor more than three hundred nineteen thousand seven hundred twenty-five (319,725), according to the 1980 federal census or any subsequent federal census.