2770                            County Local Laws

(e) Perform such other duties as delegated by the Fire
Board.

d. Budget and Fiscal Procedures.

1.    Fiscal year. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
Code to the contrary, fire departments and rescue squads supported
in whole or in part by tax levies for the 1970-71 fiscal year and
thereafter shall prepare annual budgets under procedures and at
times as directed by the Fire Board to conform to the fiscal year of
the County, July 1 to June 30.

2.    Budgets and Distribution of Fire Tax Revenue. Each fire
department and rescue squad shall prepare in the uniform manner
prescribed by the Fire Board its annual budget requirements with
appropriate justification. All budgets shall be submitted to the Fire
Board at the time required by the Fire Board. The Fire Board shall
prepare a separate budget for its own proposed expenditures, which
budget shall be funded by the County and be subject to final approval
of the County Council under the budget procedure. The executive
committee shall conduct a public hearing on such budgets not later
than January 15 of each year. Reasonable advance public notice shall
be given of the dates of such budget hearing or hearings to newspa-
pers, civic groups and other interested parties and a transcript shall
be made of each hearing. The budgets and transcripts shall be made
available for review by members of the public.

The Fire Board shall forward all budgets, with a summary and
its recommendations, to the County Executive for submission to the
Council under budget procedures no later than February 15 of each
year. The County Council, in their next annual levy, shall levy a tax
on all property assessed for County tax purposes within the respective
taxing areas for those fire departments or rescue squads requiring
such tax levy at a rate on each one hundred dollars of the assessed
value of the property to produce an amount that may appear to the
Council as sufficient for the purposes of maintaining, equipping and
operating the departments or squads, provided that the County Coun-
cil shall not levy such tax at a rate which would produce less than the
amount so certified by any fire department or squad, as necessary to
maintain, equip and operate the fire department or squad, without a
previous public hearing to determine the necessity of any proposed
reduction of the amount so certified by the fire department or squad.
The tax shall be levied and shall be collected as County taxes are now
or may be hereafter levied and collected and shall have the same
priority rights, bear the same interest and penalties and in every
respect be treated the same as County taxes. The taxes so levied for
the ensuing year shall be collected by the tax collecting authorities
of the County and they shall remit the whole amount of the taxes so
collected to the respective treasurers of the departments or squads.