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.