The fiscal year shall begin on the first day of January in each year and end of the 31st day of December.
To enable the Mayor to prepare the proposed budget, the head of every department and agency, except the Water Department, not later than the 16th day of August of each year shall file with the Mayor and with the Commissioner of Finance estimates in writing, specifying in detail the amount and objects of expenditures required in their respective departments or agencies during the ensuing fiscal year, including a statement of each of the salaries of officers and employees of such departments and agencies together with a statement of estimated revenues, if any, to be received in such ensuing fiscal year. The Commissioner of Finance on or before the first day of October of each year shall file with the Mayor a confirmation or modification of estimates of revenue submitted to him, a statement of other requirements, and such other information in writing as may be required of him by the Mayor. On or before the 16th day of October of each year, the Mayor shall prepare and submit to the Common Council the proposed budget including itemized statements of the estimated revenues and expenditures of the city for the next ensuing year, and also the operating budget presented by the Board of Water Commissioners. The Mayor shall present to the Common Council along with such budget, a budget message. On or before the first day of November of each year, the Common Council shall accept the proposed budget as submitted by the Mayor or make such modifications thereof as it may desire, except as restricted by § C-66 of this Charter, and on or before said date shall file such proposed budget or modification thereof with the City Clerk and the Commissioner of Finance, which statement, when filed, shall be known as the preliminary budget. The preliminary budget shall be a public record and shall be available for inspection by the general public at the office of the City Clerk. On or before the fifth day of November of each year, the Common Council shall fix a date, time and place for a public hearing on the preliminary budget before the Common Council and direct the Clerk to give public notice thereof at least five (5) days before the date of such hearing in the official newspaper of the city.
The Common Council shall meet on the date, at the time and at the place fixed for the purpose of holding the public hearing on the budget. Such hearing shall be held and completed before the 16th day of November of each year. At this hearing all persons desiring to be heard in relation to the budget shall be heard. However, the Common Council may establish rules of procedure for such public hearings and such rules may provide limitations on the time allocated to any speaker.
The Common Council, at a regular or special meeting held after the public hearing but not later than the 10th day of December, shall by resolution adopt, or amend and adopt, the budget, except as restricted by § C-66 of this Charter, which budget when adopted shall thereupon become the annual budget of the city for the ensuing fiscal year. At the same meeting at which the annual budget is adopted, the Common Council shall adopt a resolution appropriating the various amounts in the budget as approved for the departments and agencies of the city, and for the several purposes specified in the budget. In the event that the Common Council shall fail to adopt a budget on or before the 10th day of December, the preliminary budget, with such changes, alterations and revisions as shall have been made by the Common Council, shall constitute the budget for the ensuing fiscal year.
A. 
A separate account shall be kept for each appropriation. Each such account shall show the amount appropriated, the several amounts expended therefrom and the unexpended balance.
B. 
The Commissioner of Finance shall prior to the close of the fiscal year ascertain the unpaid obligations of the city and shall encumber the applicable appropriation account balances to the extent of such unpaid obligations. Each appropriation to the extent that it shall not have been expended or obligated, shall lapse at the close of the fiscal year for which made, except that an appropriation for a capital project shall continue in force until the purposes for which it was made shall have been accomplished or abandoned.
C. 
The Common Council, during a fiscal year, by resolution, may decrease existing appropriations or may make additional appropriations or increase existing appropriations and shall provide for the financing thereof. Moneys therefor may be provided from the unexpended balance of an appropriation, from an estimated fund balance or unanticipated revenues within a fund or by borrowing pursuant to the Local Finance Law. For these purposes, unappropriated cash surplus or unanticipated revenues shall be utilized only to the extent that the total of all revenues of such fund, together with cash surplus, exceeds the total of all revenues and appropriated cash surplus as estimated in the budget.
D. 
The Mayor may not make budget account transfers from the appropriations of one department to another department without the express authorization from the Common Council. The Mayor, upon recommendation of a department head may, however, make transfers from one line item appropriation to another line item appropriation within that department head's own department without the necessity of Common Council authorization provided that said transfer, and the cumulative amount of all such transfers for that department in the fiscal year, is less than two percent (2%) of the yearly appropriation for such department.