The fiscal year of the Town shall begin on the
first day of July and shall end on the last day of June in each year.
Such fiscal year shall constitute the tax year, the budget year, and
the accounting year.
a.
Budget Submitted
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The Town Administrator, on such date as the
Board of Commissioners shall determine, but by at least the first
meeting in April, shall submit a budget to the Board of Commissioners.
The budget shall provide a complete financial plan for that fiscal
year and shall contain estimates of anticipated revenues from sources
other than taxes to be levied on real and personal property, an estimate
of the assessable value of real and personal property subject to taxation
by the Town and a tentative tax rate so computed thereon that the
total revenue from all sources, other than special assessments, shall
be equal to the total of the proposed expenditures other than expenditures
to be recovered by special assessments.
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b.
Tentative Budget
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The Board of Commissioners may insert new budget
items, delete items, and increase or decrease the items of the budget
so presented. The Board of Commissioners shall then adopt a tentative
budget, which shall be adopted no later than the second Town meeting
in April. The tentative budget shall be a public record of the office
of the Director of Finance, open to public inspection by any resident
or taxpayer of the Town of Bel Air during normal business hours.
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c.
Hearings
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Before adopting the final budget, the Board
of Commissioners shall hold a public hearing on the tentative budget
between the fifteenth (15th) and thirty-first (31st) day of May after
two weeks notice thereof has been published in some newspaper or newspapers
with a general circulation within the Town.
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d.
Final Budget
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After the public hearing, the Board of Commissioners
may insert new items or may increase or decrease or delete any item
of the budget. Where the Board shall increase the total proposed expenditures,
it shall also increase the total anticipated revenue in an amount
at least equal to such proposed expenditures other than expenditures
to be recovered by special assessments.
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The final budget for each fiscal year shall
be prepared and adopted in the form of a budget resolution on or before
the first day of June to become effective on the first day of July
of such fiscal year. The favorable vote of at least a majority of
the Board shall be necessary for the adoption of the final budget.
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e.
Special Assessment Budget Item for Cost of Construction
and Improvements
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At the time the Town Administrator is required
to submit a budget to the Board of Commissioners, the Town Administrator
shall also submit to the Board of Commissioners as a separate budget
item a complete estimate of the cost of construction and improvements
proposed for the budget year for which a special assessment can legally
be levied and the estimated receipts from special assessments. In
such budget items anticipated receipts shall be first applied to amortization
of indebtedness incurred for construction and improvements made under
this item in previous budgets and then anticipated receipt remaining
shall be applied to the estimated cost of construction and improvements
to be made under this item in the proposed budget. Any deficit shall
be met by borrowing as follows: by loan from an amount appropriated
in the general section of the budget with interest at a rate to be
determined by the Board of Commissioners but not to exceed eight per
centum (8%) per annum on the unpaid balance, or by a loan made on
certificates of indebtedness, or bonds issued on the full faith and
credit of the Town of Bel Air.
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The Town of Bel Air may issue certificates of
indebtedness or bonds issued on the full faith and credit of the Town
of Bel Air from time to time to provide working capital under the
special assessment budget item.
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All costs of any construction or improvements
(including interest on any sums borrowed from whatever source) provided
for by the special assessment budget item shall be covered by a special
assessment levied against the property thereby affected at a rate
sufficient to repay the costs over such period as the Board of Commissioners
may elect, not however to exceed ten (10) years.
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No public money may be expended without having
been appropriated by the Board of Commissioners. From the effective
date of the budget, the several amounts stated therein as proposed
expenditures shall become appropriated to the several objects and
purposes named therein.
Any transfer of funds by the Town Administrator
between appropriations for different purposes shall be approved by
a majority of the Board of Commissioners before becoming effective.
No officer or employee shall during any budget
year expend or contract to expend any money or incur any liability
or enter into any contract which by its terms involved the expenditure
of money for any purchase, in excess of the amounts appropriated for
or transferred to that general classification of expenditure pursuant
to this Charter. Any contract, verbal or written, made in violation
of the Charter of Bel Air shall be null and void. Nothing in this
Section contained, however, shall prevent the making of a contract
or the spending of money for capital improvements to be financed in
whole or in part by the issuance of bonds, nor the making of contracts
of lease or for services for a period exceeding the budget year in
which such contract is made, when such contract or spending is permitted
by law.
All appropriations shall lapse at the end of
the budget year to the extent that they shall not have been expended
or lawfully encumbered. Any unexpended and unencumbered funds shall
be considered a surplus at the end of the budget year and all or part
thereof may be included among the anticipated revenues for the next
succeeding budget year or retained as a contingent fund, at the discretion
of the Board of Commissioners.
