Budget and Appropriation Process

The Charter provides for the Mayor, and such other officials as the Mayor shall select, to prepare a budget for consideration by the Board of Aldermen. The Mayor’s proposed budget must include certain historic and projected expense and revenue information and statements of anticipated tax levy and debt service requirements. The Mayor’s proposed budget is referred to a public hearing. After the public hearing the Board of Mayor and Aldermen may adopt the proposed budget with or without amendment. If amendments are made, a second public hearing may be held prior to final adoption. The Mayor may veto the entire budget or line items thereof. In the event of a veto all portions of the budget not vetoed shall be passed. If the BMA fails to adopt appropriation resolutions for the ensuing fiscal year by June 30th, the Mayor’s budget as originally proposed shall prevail.

The Charter also provides for supplemental appropriations, reductions of appropriations and transfers of appropriations under certain limited circumstances.

Four Year Budget Trend

	2009	2010	2011	2012
Education	146,056,839	146,393,771	148,742,185	150,200,000
General Government	18,544,893	19,116,401	17,838,004	15,297,128
Public Safety	37,450,711	37,342,026	37,487,081	37,487,081
Highway and Streets	19,050,498	19,217,551	19,444,884	19,269,884
Health and Welfare	3,515,454	3,737,701	3,720,165	3,650,165
Culture & Recreation	4,674,236	4,807,192	4,813,086	5,143,785
Economic Development	249,284	288,672	284,342	205,302
Non-Departmental Benefits   (1)	22,595,066	27,623,816	29,857,852	31,527,547
Motorized Equipment	125,000	85,000	-	-
Debt Service	14,936,186	14,360,000	14,550,00	18,264,508
Total Budget	267,199,167	272,972,130	276,737,599	281,045,400

(1)All benefit costs are excluded from departmental budgets.

Budget Books

The Finance Department publishes an Annual "Budget Book" upon Budget approval by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The "Budget Book" contains an overall summary of the budget, an expense and revenue summary by agency (department) and detailed budget by agency (department) and organization (division). The following Budget Books are available for review and download. Adobe reader is required to access this file. It can be downloaded free, here.