182. Section 3. On or before the second Monday of May of each year, the several departments shall prepare and file with the city clerk detailed estimates of the expense of operation of their various departments for the next succeeding fiscal year. Such estimates shall be tabulated by the city clerk in accordance with a uniform system of budget grouping. The city clerk shall furnish a list of the amounts required to provide for all interest and sinking fund requirements, the estimated expense of operating his own department and of all other general expenses of the city, not covered by the reports of departments filed with him. All such estimates shall be presented to the council by the city clerk, and shall be accompanied by statistics for the current year of the amount appropriated, balance on hand or overdraft or deficiency, of each budget allowance, and a statement of the cause of such overdraft or deficiency, if any there be. The council shall, on or before the fourth Tuesday in May, pass an annual appropriation bill for the next succeeding fiscal year, which shall:
(1) Provide for all interest and sinking fund requirements and amounts due upon the public debt;
(2) Appropriate fixed sums for the several purposes covered by the operations of the various departments of the city as well as the general expenses of administration of the city;
(3) Provide for any special expenses for improvements or otherwise, to be paid out of current taxes, if any; and
(4) Provide for a contingent fund which, in the judgment of the council, will be sufficient to supplement budget appropriations which may have been underestimated and provide for unforeseen and unusual expenses.
In appropriating money for budget funds, any estimated unexpended balance, as of the first Monday of October of each year, shall be deducted from the estimate for the succeeding fiscal year as presented to and allowed by the council. The annual appropriation bill shall also contain, under the heading “Special Assessments,” the amount of all special assessments finally returned by the treasurer as “unpaid,” and which are to be reassessed in the next general tax roll of the city. The total of the various amounts allowed and appropriated by the council as hereinabove directed shall be assembled into the appropriate general funds of the city, as in section 4 of the chapter set forth and established, and the council shall thereupon by ordinance designate the amounts of money allowed and appropriated by the council to be raised by taxation for such general funds for the next succeeding fiscal year.
Statutory reference:
Mandatory that charter provide for an annual appropriation of money for municipal purposes, see M.C.L.A. § 117.3(h)