The city shall within the last quarter of each fiscal year pass an ordinance to be termed “The Annual Appropriation Bill”, in which the governing body shall appropriate such sums of money as may be deemed necessary to defray all necessary expenses and liabilities of the city, not exceeding in the aggregate the amount of tax authorized to be levied and revenue available during the then ensuing year. In such ordinance, there shall be specified the object and purpose for which such appropriations are made and the amount or amounts appropriated for each object or purpose. (This financial information probably will be the same as the final approved budget.) No further appropriations shall be made at any other time within such fiscal year, unless the proposition to make such appropriations has been sanctioned by a majority of the legal voters of the city, either by a petition signed by them or at a general or special election duly called therefor. All appropriations shall end with the fiscal year for which they are made; provided, the fund arising from road taxes and bridge taxes shall be deemed especially appropriated for street repair purposes; and the income arising from the operation of the utility systems shall be deemed especially appropriated to the payment of the current expenses of and to the cost of improvements and extensions and additions to said systems respectively, and shall not be included in the Annual Appropriation Ordinance. Nothing in this ordinance contained shall be construed to prohibit the Council from appropriating other money in the Annual Appropriation Bill for the use of streets, grades and bridges and for water, lighting, power, heating and sewer systems; provided, the sums so appropriated in the aggregate do not exceed the maximum of tax allowed to be levied and collected as fixed by the laws of the state.
(2005 Code, § 1-908)