The fiscal year of the City of El Campo shall begin on the first day of October of each calendar year and shall end on the last day of September of each next following calendar year. Such fiscal year shall also constitute the budget and accounting year.
The City Manager, at least forty-five (45) days prior to the beginning of each budget year, shall submit to the City Council a proposed budget, which budget shall provide a complete financial plan for the fiscal year, and shall contain the following:
(1) 
A budget message, explanatory of the budget, which shall contain an outline of the financial policies of the city for the fiscal year, shall set forth the reasons for salient changes from the previous fiscal year in expenditure and revenue items, and shall explain any major changes in financial policy.
(2) 
A consolidated statement of receipts and expenditures for all funds, including municipal utility funds.
(3) 
An analysis of property valuations.
(4) 
An analysis of tax rate.
(5) 
Tax levies and tax collections by years for at least five (5) years or for the number of years for which records are available.
(6) 
General fund resources in detail.
(7) 
Summary of proposed expenditures by fund, department and activity. Summary of proposed expenditures by character and object.
(8) 
Summary of proposed expenditures by character and object.
(9) 
Detailed estimates of expenditures shown separately for each activity to support the summaries [of] number 7 and 8 above. Such estimates of expenditures are to include an itemization of positions showing the number of persons having each title and the rate of pay.
(10) 
A schedule detailing all outstanding bond status.
(11) 
A description of all bond issues outstanding, showing rate of interest, date of issue, maturity date, amount authorized, amount issued and amount outstanding.
(12) 
A schedule of requirements for the principal and interest on each issue of bonds.
(13) 
A special funds section.
(14) 
The appropriation ordinance.
(15) 
The tax levying ordinance.
(16) 
A capital improvement program for the budget year and proposed method of financing.
The City Manager in the preparation of the budget shall show in parallel columns opposite the various properly classified items of revenues and expenditures, the actual amount of such items for the last completed fiscal year, the actual amount for the current fiscal year, and the proposed amount for the ensuing fiscal year.
The budget and all supporting schedules shall be a public record in the office of the City Secretary open to inspection by anyone. The City Manager shall cause sufficient copies of the budget to be prepared for distribution to interested persons.
At the meeting of the City Council at which the budget is submitted, the City Council shall fix the time and place of a public hearing on the budget and shall cause to be published a notice of the hearing, setting forth the time and place thereof and presenting a condensed summary of the budget, at least seven (7) days before the date of the hearing.
At the time and place set forth in the notice required in Section 9.05, or at any time and place to which such public hearing shall from time to time be adjourned, the City Council shall hold a public hearing on the budget submitted and all interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard for or against any item or the amount of any item therein contained.
The budget shall be adopted by the favorable votes of at least a majority of all members of the whole City Council and shall be finally adopted not later than September 30; or within twenty-one (21) days from the date the appraisal valuations of the city are received from the Central Appraisal District, whichever date is the later. If the City Council fails to adopt the annual budget before the start of the fiscal year to which it applies, appropriations of the last budget adopted shall be considered as adopted for the current fiscal year on a month-to-month, pro rata basis until the next budget is adopted.
Upon final adoption, the budget shall be in effect for the fiscal year. A copy of the budget, as finally adopted, shall be filed with the City Secretary, the County Clerk of Wharton County, and the State Comptroller of Public Accounts in Austin. Copies of the final budget shall be made available for the use of all offices, departments and agencies, and for the use of interested persons.
From the effective date of the budget, the several amounts stated therein as proposed expenditures shall be and become appropriated to the several departments and purposes therein named.
Provision shall be made in the annual budget and in the appropriation ordinance for a contingent appropriation in an amount equal to at least three (3) months of the general operating budget, to be used in case of unforeseen items of expenditures. Such contingent appropriation shall be under the control and distribution of the City Manager after approval by the City Council. Expenditures from this appropriation shall be made only in case of established emergencies and a detailed account of such expenditures shall be recorded and reported. The proceeds of the contingent appropriation shall be disbursed only by transfer to other departmental appropriations, the spending of which shall be charged to the departments or activities for which the appropriations are made.
The total estimated expenditures of the general fund and debt service fund shall not exceed the total estimated resources of each fund. The classification of revenue and expenditure accounts shall conform as nearly as local conditions will permit to the uniform classification as promulgated by the National Committee on Municipal Accounting, or some other nationally accepted classification.
Anticipated revenues shall include the surplus arising from unencumbered appropriation balances at the beginning of the budget year and from receipts of revenues in excess of the estimates in the budget. Encumbrances of appropriation at the end of the fiscal year shall be detailed and shall include only those evidenced by signed purchase orders or contracts.