The fiscal year of the city shall commence on the first day
of January and end on the last day of December of each year.
Investment policies and policies for accounts and deposits shall
be established by resolution of the city council. No demand for money
shall be approved, allowed, audited or paid unless it shall be in
writing, dated and sufficiently itemized to identify the demand against
the City.
No poll tax shall ever be levied or collected by the city for
any purpose whatsoever.
Until the council shall otherwise by ordinance provide, the
statutes of the State of Colorado now or hereafter in force, shall
govern the making of assessments by the assessor of the county in
which the city is situated, the making of equalization of the board
of county commissioners of said county, and the collection of taxes
by the treasurer of said county for and on behalf of the city, and
also the certification and collection of all delinquent charges, assessment
or taxes.
Upon said budget as adopted and filed, the council shall pass
an ordinance, not later than the thirty-first day of December, in
each year, which shall be entitled “The Annual Appropriation
Ordinance,” in which it shall appropriate such sums of money
as it may deem necessary to defray all expenses and liabilities of
the city, and in such ordinance shall specify the objects and purposes
for which such appropriations are made, and the amount appropriated
for each object and purpose therein named for the ensuing fiscal year.
Such ordinance shall include the proper levy in mills upon each
dollar of the assessed valuation of all taxable property within the
city, such levy representing the amount of taxes for city purposes
necessary to provide for payment during the ensuing fiscal year of
all properly authorized demands upon the treasurer, and the council
shall thereupon cause the total levy to be certified by the city clerk
to the county assessor who shall extend the same upon the tax list
of the current year in a separate column entitled, “The City
of Grand Junction Taxes,” and shall include said city taxes
in his general warrant to the county treasurer for collection, as
provided by law.
If the council fails in any year to make said levy as above
provided, then the rate last fixed shall be the rate fixed for the
ensuing fiscal year.
The amount required to make payment of any interest, or principal
of bonded indebtedness, shall always be included in and met by tax
levy except as otherwise provided in this Charter.
Except as herein otherwise specifically provided, the city expenditures
in any one year shall not be increased over and above the amount provided
in the annual appropriation ordinance for that year, and no contract
involving the expenditure, and no expenditure for any improvement
to be paid out of the general or special funds of the city or for
defraying the expenses and liabilities of the city shall exceed, in
any one year, the amount provided in the annual appropriation ordinance
to be paid out of the said general and special funds so appropriated
and set apart, but the said several funds shall be maintained for,
used and devoted to the particular purposes specified in the annual
appropriation ordinance.
It shall not be lawful for any department or officer of the
city to incur or contract any expense or liability for or on behalf
of the city unless such an appropriation shall have been made concerning
such expense. Such contract shall be ab initio null
and void as to the city for any other or further liability; provided
first, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the council from
providing by ordinance for payment of any expense, the necessity of
which is caused by any casualty, accident or unforeseen contingency
arising after the passage of the annual appropriation ordinance; and,
second, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to or
limit the authority conferred in relation to bonded indebtedness,
nor for moneys to be collected by special assessments for local improvements.
Until the council shall otherwise by ordinance provide, the
county treasurer shall collect city taxes in the same manner and at
the same time as state taxes are collected, and all laws of this state
for the assessment of property and the levy and collection of general
taxes, including laws for the sale of property for taxes, and the
redemption of the same, shall apply and have as full effect in respect
of taxes for the city as of such general taxes, except as modified
by this Charter.
On or before the fifth day of every month, the county treasurer
shall report and pay to the city treasurer the amount of tax collections
of the city for the preceding month.