**Intact Gift Giving Condition book**
How a local government approaches finance significantly affects how its officials and employees perform their duties and how it can serve its constituents. Finance—the acquisition, management, and expenditure of money and other financial resources—is critical to local government operations. But North Carolina's local governments do not operate with complete independence or at the sole discretion of their officials or employees. Instead, our state's local governments derive all of their powers from the North Carolina General Assembly—and the General Assembly, through a variety of laws, has delineated the manner in which local governments may acquire, manage, and expend public funds.