(A) The City Council shall each year or biennial period conduct a public hearing on its proposed budget statement. Such hearing shall be held separately from any regularly scheduled meeting of the governing body and shall not be limited by time. Notice of the place and time of the hearing, together with a summary of the proposed budget statement, shall be published four calendar days prior to the date set for hearing in a newspaper of general circulation within the city’s jurisdiction. For purposes of such notice, the four calendar days shall include the day of publication but not the day of hearing. When the total operating budget, not including reserves, does not exceed $10,000 per year or $20,000 per biennial period, the proposed budget summary may be posted at the City Council’s principal headquarters. At such hearing, the governing body shall make at least three copies of the proposed budget statement available to the public and shall make a presentation outlining key provisions of the proposed budget statement, including, but not limited to, a comparison with the prior year’s budget. Any member of the public desiring to speak on the proposed budget statement shall be allowed to address the governing body at the hearing and shall be given a reasonable amount of time to do so.
(B) After the hearing, the proposed budget statement shall be adopted, or amended and adopted as amended, and a written record shall be kept of the hearing. The amount to be received from personal and real property taxation shall be certified to the levying board after the proposed budget statement is adopted or is amended and adopted as amended. The certification of the amount to be received from personal and real property taxation shall specify separately the amount to be applied to the payment of principal or interest on bonds issued or authorized to be issued by the City Council or the legal voters of the political subdivision and the amount to be received for all other purposes.
(C) If the adopted budget statement reflects a change from that shown in the published proposed budget statement, a summary of the changes shall be published within 20 calendar days after its adoption in the manner provided in this section, but without provision for hearing, setting forth the items changed and the reasons for the changes.
(D) Upon approval by City Council, the budget shall be filed with the Auditor of Public Accounts. The Auditor may review the budget for errors in mathematics, improper accounting and noncompliance with the State Budget Act, being Neb. RS 13-501 et seq. or Neb. RS 13-518 through 13-522. If the Auditor detects such errors, he or she shall immediately notify the Council of such errors. The Council shall correct any such error as provided in § 1-626. Warrants for the payment of expenditures provided in the budget adopted under this section shall be valid notwithstanding any errors or noncompliance for which the Auditor has notified the Council.
(Neb. RS 13-506)
(E) When a levy increase has been authorized by vote of the electors, the adopted budget statement shall indicate the amount of the levy increase.
(Neb. RS 13-507)
Editor’s note:
The city adopted the basic code model for this section in Ord. 950, passed 1-5-2021, and it has been replaced with the 2024 basic code section.