TO: All Political Subdivisions
FROM: Micah G. Vincent, Commissioner
DATE: May 13, 2014
The Department of Local Government Finance (“Department”) has launched the 2015 version of the Gateway Budgets application. Local officials may begin to use Gateway to complete line-item budget estimates for their units of government. Local officials should find that navigating the 2015 version of the Gateway Budgets application is very similar to navigating the 2014 version. However, a number of improvements have been made to make using Gateway easier and less time-consuming.
Changes currently available include:
- Most funds, departments, fund-department connections, fund-revenue connections, and fund-debt connections have been carried over from 2014 to 2015. Fund-department connections without Form 1 line items entered last year and debt that has been marked as retired were not carried over.
- Most line items entered on Form 1 have been carried over from 2014 to 2015. Exceptions include line items related to capital outlays, as they are typically one time expenditures.
- Ability to copy all line item amounts in Form 1 from the published column to the adopted column with a single mouse click.
- Ability to copy all amounts for all funds in Form 4B from the published column to the adopted column with a single mouse click.
- Ability to copy all data from Form 1 to Form 4A for all fund-department combinations with a single mouse click; other pull by selected fund and department tools have been removed.
- County Council Review Worksheet now displays the due date and submission status on the Unit Main Menu.
- A link to the Budget Flow Chart has been added at the top of the Budget Form Menu. This will help officials understand the flow of data through the forms and the order to complete them.
- Timely submission of Form 3 is required to comply with new online advertising requirements. Form 3 will need to be submitted through Gateway at least 10 days before the public hearing and no later than September 13. In addition, Form 3 now asks units to indicate whether their territorial boundaries have changed within the last year.
- Form 3 contains updated language to indicate that budget notices may be reviewed online at www.budgetnotices.in.gov and requested through a Department phone number. The www.budgetnotices.in.gov portal will be available within the next few weeks.
In addition, the following new features are still in development:
- Functionality of the error reporting tool continues to be expanded to check for additional potential errors. The tool is available for use while these additions are made.
- Form 4 will require that a non-zero budget, levy, or tax rate is entered before printing.
- Form 4 will require that at least two names for signatures are entered before printing.
- 1782 Notice Recipients form will have the option to provide a phone number in addition to an email address.
- The 2015 School Capital Projects Fund Notices and the Bus Replacement Notice templates will be available through the link provided on Form 3 by the end of May.
Finally, the County Council Review Worksheet and CNAV portions of Gateway are not yet available for 2015, but will be in the coming weeks.
Questions may be directed to the Gateway support staff at (317) 232-3777 or gateway@dlgf.in.gov.
