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.