The State Controller may close the books as soon as practicable after the close of the fiscal year.__Any bills or invoices presented after that date may be paid from appropriations or allocations for the ensuing year on the recommendation of the State Controller if within the amounts of approved allotments. At the end of each fiscal year, unencumbered appropriation and allocation balances lapse into the appropriate fund and are not available unless authorized by law. Encumbered balances may not be carried forward more than once at the end of a fiscal year, except that all encumbered balances and accounts for financial assistance and regional planning grants in accordance with Title 30-A, chapter 187 may be carried forward for 2 years beyond the year in which those balances are encumbered.

Sec. T-6. 5 MRSA §1666, as amended by PL 1995, c. 464, §14, is further amended by adding after the first paragraph a new paragraph to read:

The Governor, when submitting the budget to the Legislature, shall submit the budget document and the General Fund and Highway Fund bills in a manner that identifies the gross amount of resources for each program. The gross unified budget bills and budget document encompass resources from the General Fund, Highway Fund, Federal Expenditures Fund, Federal Block Grant Fund and Other Special Revenue funds. Separate gross unified budget bills must be submitted for the General Fund and the Highway Fund.

Sec. T-7. 5 MRSA §1667-B is enacted to read:

§1667-B.__Allotment in excess of legislatively authorized

allocations

Allotments in Other Special Revenue funds accounts and internal service fund accounts may exceed current year allocations and the unused balance of allocations authorized to carry forward by law under the following conditions, except that funds in Other Special Revenue funds accounts and internal service fund accounts must be expended in accordance with the statutes that establish the accounts and for no other purpose:

1.__Sufficient cash.__Sufficient cash is available from the Other Special Revenue funds accounts, the internal service fund accounts or the unencumbered balance authorized to carry forward by law;