In order to enable said Board to make such budget and estimate,
each department, officer, board and commission shall, not later than
September 10, send to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment an estimate
in writing, herein called a "departmental estimate," of the amount
of expenditures, specifying in detail the objects thereof, required
in their respective departments, offices, boards and commissions,
including a statement of each of the salaries of their officers, clerks
and subordinates during the ensuing fiscal year. Each shall also at
the same time file with said Board of Estimate and Apportionment a
statement of all revenues received by said department, officer, board
or Commission during the last preceding fiscal year, and a statement
of all revenue which it is estimated said department, officer, board
or commission will receive during the next ensuing fiscal year. Duplicates
of these departmental estimates and statements shall be sent at the
same time to the Common Council.
After such budget is made by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment,
together with the final estimate of the revenue of the City as prepared
by said Board of Estimate and Apportionment, it shall be submitted
by the Board on or before November 10 to the Common Council, whereupon
a special meeting of the Common Council shall be called by the Mayor
to consider such budget, and at such meeting no other business shall
be considered. Such meeting may be adjourned from time to time until
final action is taken on such budget, but such consideration and adjournment
shall not continue beyond 20 days after the time for which such meeting
is first called by the Mayor, and in the event of the Common Council's
taking no action thereon within such period of time, the budget shall
be deemed to be finally adopted as submitted by the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment. Before any budget shall be finally adopted, the
Mayor shall hold a public hearing thereon, upon notice given by publication
for two successive days in the official newspaper. Such hearing shall
be held no earlier than five days after the date of the first publication
of the notice. A representative of each department, officer, board
or Commissioner required to submit a departmental estimate shall be
present at the public hearing provided herein.
The Common Council may reduce any items or amounts fixed by
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, except such amounts as are
now or may hereafter be fixed by law, and except such amounts as may
be inserted by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for the payment
of principal and interest of the City debt and payments to the credit
of sinking funds as provided by law, but the Common Council may not
increase such amounts nor vary the terms and conditions thereof nor
insert any new items.
Such action of the Common Council on reducing any item or amount
fixed by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment shall be subject
to the veto power of the Mayor as elsewhere provided in this Charter,
and unless such veto is overridden by a two-thirds vote of all members
of the Common Council, the item or amount as fixed by the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment shall stand as part of the budget. If the
Mayor shall veto any act of the Common Council under this article,
he shall when the same is returned to the City Clerk issue a call
for a meeting of the Common Council to be held upon the next following
weekday not a holiday, and any action by the Common Council overriding
said veto must be taken within five days thereafter.
The amount of estimated expenditures adopted as hereinbefore
provided, less the amount of estimated revenue applicable to the payment
thereof, shall constitute the tax budget. The Common Council shall
levy and cause to be raised by tax the amount of said budget, and
the amount shall be levied, assessed and raised by tax upon the real
and personal property liable to taxation in the City at the time and
in the manner provided by law.
Exclusive of any tax which may be lawfully levied in any fiscal
year: for taxes levied by the Board of Supervisors of Columbia County
for state and county purposes; for the payment of any bonds or certificates
of indebtedness of the City that may fall due and be payable in that
year; for the payment of interest on the bonded or other indebtedness
of the City; and for the payment of any unpaid judgments against the
City, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment shall not estimate and
the Common Council shall not levy nor cause to be raised by tax in
any fiscal year for the purposes of the annual budget an amount of
money in excess of the percentage amount authorized by the Local Finance
Law of the assessed value of the taxable property and special franchises
within the City, as such assessed value shall appear on the assessment
roll of the City for the current fiscal year.