Page 46 - FY 2023-24 ADOPTED BUDGET

THE BUDGET PROCESS

DECEMBER

The Assistant City Manager and City Planner prepare the annual Capital Improvements Report (which lists proposed
capital improvements along with the estimated cost, the means of financing the proposed improvements, and the
year in which the proposed improvement project is scheduled to be undertaken). The City holds public hearings on
the Capital Improvements Report. Information approved in this document is included in the Capital Projects section
of the Budget Document.

JANUARY
The City officially adopts the Capital Improvements Report that outlines capital improvement projects the City
undertakes for the next five years.

FEBRUARY
The Finance Director prepares the new Budget Instructions Manual.

MARCH
The Finance Director prepares the budget work papers for the various activity areas of the City with prior year actual
and budgeted, current year budgeted amounts, current year six-month totals, and current year estimated twelve-
month totals (salary and fringe benefit costs only) pre-printed for each activity.

APRIL
The budget work papers are distributed to the various Department Directors to prepare their budget request for
the ensuing fiscal year. Worksheets are available in a shared file in the City’s network.

The Finance Director prepares revenue re-estimates for the current fiscal year and revenue projections for the
upcoming fiscal year.

MAY
Department Directors return completed work papers to the Finance Director via the shared file. The Finance
Director prepares a summary of the departmental budget requests for the City Manager. The Finance Director also
provides revenue re-estimates and projections to the City Manager along with re-estimated and projected fund
balances for the next three years for the General Fund, Debt Service Fund, and these two funds combined. The City
Manager uses these long-range projections as a target for reducing proposed expenditures in the Department
budget requests. His goal is to balance proposed expenditures against the anticipated revenue and existing
reserves to maintain fund balances at an acceptable level.

JUNE
The City Manager reviews the proposed activity budgets with each Department Director. At this time, some items
are restored to the proposed activity budgets. Additional cuts usually are necessary to compensate for the items
that have been restored to the various budget proposals.

The Finance Director prepares a Proposed Budget Document that includes detailed revenue and expenditure

summaries, fund balance estimates and projections, summaries of each activity's budget request along with
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