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FISCAL DISPARITIES: A Minnesota law enacted in 1975 which provides for the pooling of 40 <br />percent of all new commercial and industrial property valuation in the seven county metropolitan area and <br />then redistributed to taxing jurisdictions according to specific criteria. <br />FISCAL POLICY: A government's policies with respect to revenues, spending, and debt <br />management as these relate to government services, programs and capital investment. Fiscal Policy <br />provides an agreed -upon set of principles for the planning and programming of budgets and their funding. <br />FISCAL YEAR: The budget and accounting year that begins on the first day of January and ends <br />on the last day of December of each year. <br />FIXED ASSETS: Assets of a long-term character which are intended to continue to be held or <br />used, such as land, buildings, machinery, furniture, and other equipment. <br />FULL TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE): The number of employee hours (2,080) needed to be equal to <br />one full time employee. Several part time employees may be combined to make one full time equivalent. <br />FUNCTION: A group of related activities aimed at accomplishing a major service or regulatory <br />program for which the government unit is responsible. <br />FUND: An independent fiscal and accounting entity with a self -balancing set of accounts recording cash <br />and/or other resources together with all related liabilities, obligations, reserves, and equities which are <br />segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives. <br />FUND BALANCE: The difference between fund's assets and fund liabilities (the equity) in <br />governmental funds. <br />FUND BALANCE —ASSIGNED: Segregation of a portion of fund balance to indicate the <br />government's intent to use the resources for specific purposes where the specific purposes are identified <br />by either the government's highest level of decision -making authority or a body or official that has been <br />delegated the authority to do so by the governing body. <br />FUND BALANCE — COMMITTED: Segregation of a portion of fund balance that represents <br />resources whose use is subject to a legally binding constraint that is imposed by the government itself at <br />its highest level of decision -making authority and that remains legally binding unless removed in the same <br />manner. <br />FUND BALANCE — NONSPENDABLE: Segregation of a portion of fund balance to indicate that the <br />amount cannot be spent because the resources are not in spendable form, such as inventories or prepaid <br />items. <br />FUND BALANCE — RESTRICTED: Segregation of a portion of fund balance that represents <br />resources whose use is subject to externally enforceable constraints. <br />FUND BALANCE — UNASSIGNED: The difference between the total fund balance in a governmental <br />fund and its nonspendable, restricted, committed, and assigned components. Only the general fund may <br />report positive amounts of unassigned fund balance. <br />GENERAL FUND: Accounts for the general operation of the Township and all financial resources <br />except those to be accounted for in another fund. <br />64 <br />