Balanced Budget

The money collected by the City from taxes, grants, fees, and other sources is called revenue. The money spent on salaries, materials, and equipment to provide services and facilities is called expenditures. By law, revenues and expenditures must be equal in the Annual Budget.

The City Manager must propose, and the City Council must adopt, a balanced budget. The City Manager sets the expenditures of the budget and establishes the revenue estimates to finance the budget. The City Manager initiates the budget process by submitting the proposed budget for the next fiscal year to the Council. The Council, as a body, evaluates and amends the proposed budget at its discretion. The Council then adopts a finalized, balanced budget, prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. A balanced budget requires that the proposed budget expenditures shall not exceed estimated revenues and applied fund balance, if any. The Council also adopts an ordinance to authorize the appropriation of the required funds for the annual budget.

The City’s budget may seem complex and written so that only a bureaucrat could understand it, but this is because the City is called upon to provide financial detail that is necessary for making budget decisions.