SUMMERS, Justice.
A recently enacted statute requires the County Assessor to visually inspect and revalue real property for ad valorem taxation purposes. It provides for apportionment of the Assessor’s revaluation costs among the local recipients of the tax revenues. The defendants are three Tulsa County school districts who have not paid their share of the Assessor’s revaluation expense. The plaintiff is the Tulsa County Assessor, who wants them to do so. Must the school districts pay the Assessor, and if so what are the procedures the Assessor must use to get paid? We conclude that (1) the Assessor may use mandamus during the fiscal year to obtain payment from that year’s school budget, and (2) if the Assessor’s claims come after the end of the fiscal year the Assessor may get a judgment payable from the school’s sinking fund when the revaluation expense was included in the school district’s budget, and when the judgment complies with the Oklahoma Constitution and statutes for judgments against school districts. For reasons to be explained our holding is prospective in part.
The case was tried in the District Court of Tulsa County. The result was that the trial [298]*298court by way of mandamus ordered the school districts to pay their share. They appealed and the Court of Appeals affirmed. We have granted certiorari to resolve this matter of broad public concern.
I.
The statutes requiring the Assessor to conduct a program for the visual inspection of taxable real property in the county for the purpose of ad valorem taxes are 68 O.S.1991 §§ 2820, 2821. The annual budget of the Assessor’s office is submitted to the County Excise Board (or County Budget Board), and that board must make adequate provision for the costs of the inspection program. 68 O.S.Supp.1992 § 2822. The Assessor’s cost of this inspection program is apportioned among the various recipients of revenues from the mill rates levied, including the county, all cities and towns, all school districts, and all sinking funds of such recipients. 68 O.S.Supp.1992 § 2823(B). The Assessor renders a statement to each of the jurisdictions, including school districts, that are required to pay their proportionate cost. That statement must include “The current fiscal year in which the charge has been incorporated in the jurisdiction’s budget.” 68 O.S.Supp.1992 § 2823(D)(1).
The school districts seek to have the payments of the revaluation expense come from the sinking fund. The definition of a sinking fund is provided by 62 O.S.1991 § 331:
Fourth. All funds required to be provided by ad valorem tax levy to pay outstanding indebtedness created under authority of Section 26 and/or Section 27, Article 10, Constitution, are hereby declared to constitute the “Sinking Fund” of such county or other municipal subdivision, to be used for the payment of coupons, bonds, and judgments as provided by law.
Additionally, the sinking fund of a district “shall consist of all money derived from ad valorem taxes or otherwise as provided by law for the payment of bonds and judgments and interest thereon.” 70 O.S.1991 § 1-119.
For a school district to budget the revaluation cost to a sinking fund that cost must qualify as an outstanding indebtedness created under authority of Sections 26 and/or 27 of Article 10 of the Constitution, or to pay judgments, bonds, or interest thereon. Clearly, § 26 does not include the Assessor’s revaluation costs, since indebtedness created by § 26 requires a vote of the people for that purpose, and payment of the revaluation costs is not made by such an election.1 The same may be said for § 27 indebtedness created by a vote of the people at an election held for that purpose.2
Sinking funds are used to pay coupons, bonds, and judgments. 62 O.S.1991 § 331; 70 O.S.1991 § 1-119. The revaluation payment is not a coupon or bond.3 Neither is the revaluation payment a judgment, since a judgment is the final determination of the rights of the parties in an action. 12 O.S. 1991 § 681. In sum, a school district’s payment to the assessor for that district’s share of the revaluation expense is not of one of the statutorily allowed charges against a sinking fund, and cannot be included in the district’s budget as a charge against a sinking fund.
The school districts argue that the revaluation payments need not be budgeted and paid from the general funds of the districts as annual expenses. They contend that the un-budgeted payments may be paid from sink[299]*299ing funds if the districts allow judgments to be taken against the districts in the amounts of the payments. We disagree.
The statutory scheme indicates that school districts pay the revaluation expenses for a current fiscal year during that fiscal year. The revaluation expense for a particular year is incorporated into the budget of the school district for that year. 68 O.S.Supp.1992 § 2823(D)(1). When a jurisdiction’s budget and mill rate is not approved by a county Excise Board the billing statement does not conform to § 2823(D)(1), but must instead expressly state that the payments are “due and payable by December 31 of the current fiscal year.” Additionally, the statute states that the Assessor’s current year charges for the revaluation payments should equal the total visual inspection program’s budget for the current fiscal year. Id. at § 2823(D)(3).
We have explained that our State Constitution requires school districts “to carry on their operations upon a cash, or pay as you go plan.” School Dist. No. 2 v. Gossett, 140 Okla. 243, 283 P. 249, 252 (1929); Gentis v. Hunt, 121 Okla. 71, 247 P. 358 (1925). The school districts argue for a scheme where the school districts’ payments for a current fiscal year are shifted to payments on judgments in subsequent years.4 This would have the effect of shifting the Assessor’s funds to operate a current and annual revaluation program to a funding mechanism of more than one year in duration. Such a result contravenes both statute and the OHahoma Constitution as to the operation of both the school districts and the Assessor’s office.
II.
Our Constitution states that political subdivisions of the State must operate on a cash basis to prevent indebtedness extending beyond one year, unless the public has authorized the debt by an election held for that purpose. City of Del City v. Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 114, 869 P.2d 309, 311 (Okla.1994). This provision applies to both school districts and a county assessor.5
In determining whether a particular obligation is a “debt” within the scope of § 26 this Court has looked to the nature of the obligation and the remedy to enforce the obligation.6 A statutory obligation allocating financial obligations between government entities is one that has historically been treated as one in assumpsit, or contract. Judicial enforcement of a statutory obligation capable of being reduced to certainty was by an action in assumpsit, i.e., contract, and the obligation was referred to as quasi-eontractu[300]*300al.7 Judicial enforcement of the quasi-contractual statutory obligation via an action in assumpsit (contract) between two governmental entities was commonplace in two states as early as 1817, and a legislative intragovemmental allocation of funding has been both judicially and legislatively recognized in other contexts in this State.8 Our conclusion to treat the statutory revaluation obligation as remedied via quasi-contract is in accord with the rich legal tradition of enforcing fiscal statutory duties by way of quasi-contract.9
The duty to pay the revaluation expense is quasi-contractual. A quasi-contractual obligation is one where the remedy is the same as where the obligation is contractual. Shebester v. Triple Crown Insur[301]*301ers, 826 P.2d 608, 610 (Okla.1992). The remedies of mandamus and a civil judgment paid from the sinking fund used to enforce the revaluation payment as explained in part III herein are the same as those used to enforce contractual obligations of a school district. By treating the quasi-contractual revaluation obligation as contractual in nature the question arises as to the applicability of 62 O.S. 1991 §§ 361-863.10
Before final judgment in any suit based on contract shall be rendered against any municipality by any court of any county in the State of Oklahoma, ... proof shall be made to the court of the existence, character and amount of outstanding legal indebtedness of said municipality, which proof shall include ...
3. An itemized statement of the indebtedness proposed to be converted into a judgment, so classified as to show, in separate exhibits, all items of questionable legality, if any, and the reasons of said officer or officers therefor: (a.) The appropriations against which each warrant was drawn or claim accrued if in judgment, and if within the limits purposes thereof as provided by law; 62 O.S.1991 § 362
No judgment shall be rendered against any municipality by any court until the provisions of Section 2 hereof, have been fully complied with. Any judgment rendered in violation of the provisions of this act shall be void and of no effect. 62
O.S.1991 § 363.
There are, to be sure, some quasi-contractual obligations of a governmental entity not subject to the provisions of 62 O.S.1991 §§ 361-363 for the purpose of a sinking fund judgment i.e., they are not treated as contractual obligations.11 However, application of §§ 361-362 to a judgment against a school district for this expense, whether labeled as “mandamus” or “judgment,” is consistent with how this court has viewed the efforts of parties in bringing actions in mandamus in attempts to avoid statutory limitations on judgments or process.12 Additionally, appli[302]*302cation of §§ 361-362 to a school district’s revaluation obligation is consistent with how this Court has viewed statutorily imposed fiscal obligations of school districts.
Many obligations are imposed by law which require school districts to expend money on them. The fact that these obligations are imposed by law does not excuse a district from budgeting these items in the district’s fiscal budget, and a judgment against a school district is not authorized against an unbudgeted expense of this nature.
For example, in 1928 school officials requested an appropriation for their budget to buy new buses. Protest of Carter, 148 Okla. 1, 296 P. 485 (1931). Their request was denied and they decided to acquire the buses without an appropriation. When the bus company filed a judicial action to compel payment the school district asked for a judgment to be rendered against it so that the buses could be paid from sinking funds. The school officials argued that the district bought the buses to fulfill a statutory duty of pupil transportation, and in the words of one of the officials “were asHng for a judgment to pay for these trucks.” Id. 296 P. at 489.
This Court explained that legislatively required expenditures for pupil transportation had to be pursuant to a “valid appropriation for that purpose.” Id. In other words, fiscal year expenses of a subdivision of the State are to be paid from funds collected to pay fiscal year expenses, and not from other funds. Similarly, the legislatively required fiscal year revaluation expense paid by a school district must be pursuant to a valid appropriation for that purpose.
The view of the school districts is that an item required to be paid from an annual fiscal budget may remain unbudgeted and then paid from sinldng funds in the form of a judgment. When an expense is to be paid from the ordinary tax revenues and those revenues are expended without payment of the expense, the resulting payment of the judgment from the sinking fund could result in an additional property tax levy on the citizens to pay the judgment. 62 O.S.Supp. 1994 § 365.5; 62 O.S.1991 §§ 431, 435; 68 O.S.1991 § 3017. The view of the school districts could result in a school funding practice whereby annual expense items are funded by an increase in taxes not voted upon by the people. This procedure was condemned in Protest of Carter, supra, and characterized in Graves v. Board of County Commissioners of Cimarron County, 170 Okla. 282, 39 P.2d 532, 533, 534 (1934) as a method penalizing taxpayers for the acts of public officials failing to perform their duties.
We conclude that an Assessor attempting to obtain a money judgment against a school district to be paid by sinking funds must comply with 62 O.S.1991 §§ 361-363.13 An Assessor must show in the District Court that an appropriation was made to the school district for the revaluation expense. 62 O.S. 1991 § 362. Because of the confusion in the District Court as to the proper remedy for this type of ease we make our holding on this issue prospective beginning July 1, 1997, as we will explain in our Conclusion.
III.
The District Court issued a writ of mandamus to compel the immediate payment [303]*303of the revaluation expenses by the defendants. On appeal the parties discuss whether the District Court was correct in issuing the writ, and whether the District Court properly exercised review over the Excise Board.
The District Court attempted to exercise jurisdiction (1) as an appellate tribunal reviewing the Excise Board, and (2) on an application for a writ of mandamus by the Assessor. The former was improper but the latter was authorized. Neither OMahoma’s Administrative Procedures Act (75 O.S.1991 § 250.1 et seq.) nor 12 O.S.1991 § 951 provide a mechanism for District Court appellate review of the Excise Board in this case.
The schools challenged the payments to be made to the Assessor by invoking their statutory right to appear before the Excise Board to provide “comments, information and documentation” concerning the budget submitted by the Assessor. 68 O.S.Supp.1992 § 2822(B). This statutory opportunity of a governmental entity to appear is not a tax protest, but merely an opportunity for one governmental entity to provide information to another acting in a legislative capacity in creating a budget. See City of Ardmore v. Excise Bd. Of Carter County, 200 Okla. 516, 197 P.2d 961, 964 (1948) where this Court explained that the Excise Board acts “in the capacity of a legislature” in apportioning taxes for purposes.
Section 951 provides for review of certain acts involving the exercise of a judicial function.14 The legislative and discretionary determination as to the amount of the assessor’s budget is not judicially reviewable pursuant to 12 O.S.1991 § 951. The O.A.P.A., 75 O.S.1991 §§ 250.1 et seq., does not apply to counties or entities performing essentially local functions. 75 O.S.1991 § 250.5. The District Court could not exercise appellate jurisdiction over the Excise Board’s decision on the Assessor’s budget. That part of the District Court’s order exercising appellate jurisdiction and affirming the Excise Board is reversed, as the District Court has no such jurisdiction.
The proper remedy for an Assessor seeking payment during the fiscal year is by an application for mandamus in the District Court against the school districts, and when proper, against the Excise Board as well. When an Excise Board fixes appropriations for a school district at a lesser amount than it was its legal duty to do, the board may, during the fiscal year, correct the district’s appropriations. Lowden v. Caddo County Excise Bd., 176 Okla. 213, 55 P.2d 472, 474 (1936); Greer County Excise Board v. Lowden, 177 Okla. 7, 57 P.2d 612, 616 (1936). The Excise Board may make temporary appropriations for school boards, 68 O.S. 1991 § 3020, as well as supplemental and additional appropriations, 68 O.S.1991 § 3021; Protest of Cities Service Gas Co., 162 Okla. 131, 19 P.2d 546 (1933). We recently explained this Excise Board procedure in Morton v. Adair County Excise Board, 780 P.2d 707, 710 (Okla.1989).
During the fiscal year the Assessor may file an original action in the District Court for a writ of mandamus, and thereby compel the school board to include in its budget, and the Excise Board to approve, an appropriation for the revaluation expense.15 [304]*304When a budget does not include a mandatory item the Excise Board may be compelled to add the item to a budget. See First American Bank & Trust Co. v. Board of County Commissioners of Blaine County, 530 P.2d 121, 124 (Okla.1974) where we observed that a board must make a proper levy for sinking fund purposes when other officials have failed to act. A writ will issue to compel a board to make appropriations required by constitutional or statutory provisions.16 When the writ is sought for immediate payment during the fiscal year the plaintiff may join as defendants those officials necessary to levy, appropriate, and issue the proper warrant for payment during that fiscal year.17
In a mandamus proceeding to compel payment of the revaluation expense the Assessor must show both that the amount sought was included in the Assessor’s budget and in the school district’s budget. If the money was appropriated for the school district’s expense then mandamus is the preferred remedy to compel payment during the fiscal year.18 If an expense is not within an appropriation or levy an application for mandamus requesting payment fails.19 [305]*305The authority cited by the dissent does not support a rule to the contrary.20 If the money was appropriated to the school board but those funds have been spent then mandamus for immediate payment during that fiscal year wifi be denied unless surplus funds could be transferred to the general fund and used for payment.21 Mandamus for immediate payment will be denied if the fiscal year has lapsed.22 Instead of allowing a sinking fund judgment for unbudgeted annual fiscal expenses and thereby penalize the taxpayers, we adopt the view that officials should use the appropriate remedies to insure that such items are properly budgeted and paid,
The school districts say they now have no money to pay, and the fiscal year lapsed prior to the appeal being filed in this Court. We have explained that payment of an annual or current expense is not to be [306]*306paid from the revenues of a subsequent fiscal year. Tulsa County Excise Bd. v. Texas-Empire Pipe Line Co., 180 Okla. 287, 68 P.2d 861 (1937), (general fund warrants were to be paid from general funds of that year). We agree that it is now too late to mandamus the school districts to pay the 1992 fiscal year revaluation expense from current fiscal budgets.
But the fact that mandamus should be denied does not excuse a school district from paying an assessor when the revaluation expense was appropriated for the budget of the school district. When a lawful appropriation was made for an expense, that expense was incurred and went unpaid, and the fiscal year has lapsed, then the creditor, Assessor or otherwise, obtains a judgment against the school district. For example, in Tulsa County Excise Bd. v. Texas-Empire Pipe Line Co., 180 Okla. 287, 68 P.2d 861 (1937) we explained that unpaid general fund warrants issued against appropriations during a fiscal year would be paid by moneys collected during the year. However, after the warrants were reduced to judgment those judgments became sinking fund obligations paid by sinking fund levies. Tulsa County Excise Bd., 68 P.2d at 863-864. If necessary, mandamus is used to compel officials to levy a tax to pay a judgment when an obligation becomes a judgment against a sinking fund. State ex rel. Crane v. Goerke, 191 Okla. 1, 126 P.2d 1005 (1942).
In sum, the proper procedure is for the Assessor to bill a school district for payment as required by statute. If the bill is unpaid the Assessor files mandamus during the fiscal year to require the amount to be paid, and if necessary for the amount to be included in the school district’s budget. Once the item is in the budget the Assessor may still recover the amount even if the fiscal year has lapsed during the proceeding.23
The Assessor sought mandamus in the District Court to compel payment. The record shows that the amounts sought were included in the Assessor’s budget. However, the record is silent as to whether the amounts were appropriated for the fiscal budgets of the school districts. The school districts rely upon Board of County Commissioners, etc. v. City of Muskogee, 820 P.2d 797 (Okla.1991) and claim that a judgment against sinking funds should be allowed for the payments to the Assessor. In City of Muskogee, supra, we explained that the Assessor may obtain a judgment against a school district when the district wrongfully refuses to pay the Assessor the revaluation payment. Id. 820 P.2d at 809. We reaffirm that holding.
In City of Muskogee, supra, we did say in a footnote that the failure of an excise board to allocate funds or provide an additional levy would not operate to defeat a valid statutory obligation. Id. 820 P.2d at 809 n. 63. However, that observation was in response to a claim that a school district or city must first receive an increase in its millage allocated by the excise board in order to meet the ex[307]*307pense of the payments to the assessor. Our observation referenced language stating the following:
The statutory language evinces legislative intent that once the revaluation cost is included in a recipient’s budget, it is a legal and valid expenditure. Nowhere do we find either in § 2481.4 or in the statutory revaluation scheme that the legislature had intended for the excise board to increase a recipient’s millage for that entity’s reimbursement to the county of its assessed share.
Id. 820 P.2d at 806.
The “recipient’s budget”, i.e., the school district’s budget, must include the revaluation cost to make that cost a valid and legal expenditure. Id. We reaffirm that holding.
We also said in Muskogee that excluding a legitimate government expense item from a city’s budget could not immunize the city from liability for a validly incurred obligation. Id. 820 P.2d at 809-810. We conclude that this language is too expansive. As we also noted above in Muskogee an expenditure becomes a legal and valid expenditure once it is included in a budget. A school district’s revaluation expense does not become a legal and valid expenditure until it is included in that district’s budget as authorized by the appropriate county board.
IV.
School districts challenged the act of the Assessor in moving twenty-two employees from the regular budget to the revaluation budget. The Excise Board has discretion in determining the budget of the Assessor. This determination may be reviewed in a mandamus proceeding in the trial court with subsequent appeal to this Court. Humphrey v. Denney, 757 P.2d 833 (Okla.1988). The trial court has the authority to determine whether the Excise Board acted arbitrarily by approving an unauthorized funding request. Id. 757 P.2d at 836. The school districts had the burden of presenting evidence to that court showing an abuse of discretion on the part of the county board. Summey v. Tisdale, 658 P.2d 464, 469-470 (Okla.1982); Rogers v. Excise Bd. of Greer County, 701 P.2d 754, 760 (Okla.1984). They must then show on appeal that the trial court abused its discretion in declining to award relief. Beatrice Foods Company v. City of Okmulgee, 381 P.2d 863, 868 (Okla.1963). They have not done so. The District Court’s order denying the school districts’ challenge to the amount of the revaluation budget is affirmed.
Conclusion
In our case today the Assessor’s remedy was to use mandamus during the fiscal year to compel the school boards and Excise Board to (1) include the revaluation expenses in the budgets of the schools, and (2) compel the districts to make immediate payments to the Assessor. Mandamus is inappropriate once the fiscal year has lapsed, and the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1992 was completed before the appeal was filed in this Court. Once the budgets of the school districts were made during the fiscal year to include the payments due that year, the lapse of the fiscal year would be no bar to obtaining a civil judgment against the school districts for the budgeted amounts left unpaid. The fiscal year has lapsed and no showing has been made that the budgets of the school districts included the payments they were required by law to make to the assessor. However, we decline to remand this case for the Assessor to make this showing.
The suit against the school districts was filed approximately three months after the mandate issued in Board of County Commissioners, etc. v. City of Muskogee, supra. The school districts relied upon this opinion in the trial court, and requested that the judgment against the school districts be paid from three annual sinking fund levies. We agree that City of Muskogee could have been relied upon by the school officials for this proposition.
We recognize that judgments may have been obtained and payments made to Assessors in compliance with City of Muskogee. We decline to east any shadow of legal impropriety upon such judgments, and we thus make our ruling herein prospective, beginning July 1,1997. Harry R. Carlile Trust v. Cotton Petroleum, 732 P.2d 438, 445-449 [308]*308(Okla.1986), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1007, 107 S.Ct. 3232, 97 L.Ed.2d 738 (1987); Oklahoma County v. Queen City Lodge No. 197, I.O.O.F., 195 Okla. 131, 156 P.2d 340, 358 (1945).
We emphasize that the revaluation expense must be included in a school district’s budget before an Assessor may obtain a judgment against a school district for that expense. The revaluation expense must be included in a school district’s budget before an Assessor may obtain a mandamus order compelling immediate payment. If the revaluation expense is not included in the school district’s budget the Assessor must compel by mandamus the appropriate officials to include the expense in the school district’s budget, and this may be done in a prior mandamus proceeding or in a mandamus proceeding that both orders those officials to include the item in the budget and the school officials to make immediate payment. In sum, a judgment to compel payment of the revaluation expense, whether by mandamus during the fiscal year or sinking fund judgment after the fiscal year, must be based upon that expense being included in the budget of the school district.
The amounts sought from the school districts are for current fiscal expenses incurred during the July 1, 1992 — June 30, 1993 fiscal year. The lapse of the fiscal year would ordinarily moot this mandamus proceeding. However, in light of Board of County Commissioners v. City of Muskogee, supra, we affirm the judgment against the school districts based upon the following conditions to be satisfied upon remand to the District Court.
The Assessor shall show that the amounts sought from the school districts were actually expended by the Assessor. She must show that the funds now sought by a judgment against the school districts are necessary to repay or replenish a public fund that was used to cover those expenses actually made by the Assessor in fiscal year July 1, 1992— June 30, 1993, and that should have been funded by the payments from the school districts. The Assessor is not entitled to a judgment against the school districts and thereby obtain funds to be used for purposes other than the expenses for the fiscal year 1992-1993.
If the Assessor makes this post-judgment showing the judgment of the District Court shall stand affirmed as to the liability of the school districts. Payment of this judgment shall conform to Board of County Commissioners, etc. v. City of Muskogee, supra, where we explained that such an order “represents a sinking fund obligation which may be paid either out of surplus revenues in the sinking fund or from three annual sinking fund levies.” Id. 820 P.2d at 810. If the Assessor cannot make this showing the District Court shall vacate its judgment and dismiss the proceeding.
The opinion of the Court of Appeals is vacated. The judgment of the District Court is affirmed in part and reversed in part, subject to the requirements imposed herein, and the case is thus remanded for disposition.
KAUGER, C.J., SUMMERS, V.C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, SIMMS, ALMA WILSON and WATT, JJ., concur.
HARGRAVE and OPALA, JJ., dissent.