SEC. 9.101. PROPOSED BIENNIAL AND MULTI-YEAR BUDGETS.
§ 9.101
The Mayor must submit a proposed two-year budget to the Board of Supervisors each year, including estimated revenues, expenditure plans, and a narrative summary; the budget must be balanced for each fiscal year. The Mayor may revise the proposed budget before adoption, must file copies at the library and make summaries public, and may submit new revenue ordinances with the budget. The Board may require multi-year planning, and may designate certain departments to operate under fixed two-year budgets that remain unchanged unless the Controller identifies significant revenue or expenditure shifts, triggering a formal amendment process.
Each year, the Mayor prepares a two-year spending plan (budget) and gives it to the Board of Supervisors. The budget shows expected money coming in from all sources and how the city will spend it, including setting aside emergency reserves. The budget must balance—the city cannot plan to spend more than it expects to have. The Mayor publishes budget summaries at the library so the public can see them. Before the Board votes, the Mayor can make changes to the proposal. If the budget includes new fees or taxes, the Mayor must propose the rules to create them at the same time. The Board can ask departments to plan further ahead than two years. For some departments, the Board can decide to use the same budget for two full years without voting again—but if the Controller warns that money or spending will significantly change in year two, the Mayor can propose an adjustment, which automatically passes unless the Board votes to change it by July 15.
- Complex:Subsections (g) and (h) contain nested conditions, cross-references to other sections, and a multi-step amendment process with deemed-approved language that makes the fixed budgetary cycle rules difficult to follow.
- Controversial:The deemed-approved amendment mechanism (where the Mayor's proposal becomes law unless the Board votes to reject it by a deadline) inverts normal legislative procedure and may be contentious regarding executive versus legislative power.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) The Mayor shall submit to the Board of Supervisors each year a proposed biennial budget, ordinances and resolutions fixing wages and benefits for all classifications and related appropriation ordinances.
(b) The proposed biennial budget shall include:
1. Estimated revenues and surpluses from whatever sources, to the extent feasible, for the forthcoming two fiscal years and the allocation of such revenues and surpluses to various departments, functions and programs to support expenditures. Proposed expenditures may include such necessary and prudent reserves as recommended by the Controller; and
2. A summary of the proposed biennial budget with a narrative description of priorities, services to be provided and economic assumptions used in preparing the revenue estimates.
(c) The proposed biennial budget and appropriation ordinances shall be balanced for each fiscal year so that the proposed annual expenditures of each fund do not exceed the estimated annual revenues and surpluses of that fund. If the proposed budget contains new revenue or fees, the Mayor shall submit to the Board of Supervisors the relevant implementing ordinances at the same time the biennial budget is submitted.
(d) Until the appropriation ordinances are adopted by the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor may submit to the Board of Supervisors revisions to the proposed biennial budget, appropriation ordinances, and ordinances and resolutions fixing wages and benefits.
The Mayor may instruct the Controller to prepare the draft appropriation ordinances.
(e) The Mayor shall file a copy of the proposed biennial budget at the Main Library and shall give notice of the budget summary, including making copies available to the public. Upon final approval of the budget by both the Board and the Mayor, notice shall be given of the final budget summary.
(f) The Board of Supervisors by ordinance may require multi-year budget plans and other budget planning strategies to be performed by the several departments and offices of the City and County.
(g) No later than February 1 of any even-numbered fiscal year, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors by resolution may determine that the upcoming budgetary cycle or cycles for some or all City departments and offices shall be a fixed budgetary cycle or cycles in which the biennial budget will remain in effect for two fiscal years. With respect to the designated City departments and offices, the Board will not adopt a new budget for the second fiscal year of such fixed budgetary cycle or cycles, except as provided in subsection (h), below. But the City shall adjust the biennial budget for the second year of any fixed budget cycle if certain conditions exist, using the following process:
1. If, during the first year of any fixed budgetary cycle, the Controller projects that the City will experience significant increases or decreases in revenues or expenditures during the second year of such budgetary cycle, the Controller shall submit a report to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors identifying those increases or decreases.
2. The Mayor shall prepare and submit to the Board of Supervisors a proposed amendment to the biennial budget responding to the Controller's report. The Board may approve or amend the Mayor's proposed budget amendment subject to the limitations that apply to the approval of the budget in Section 9.103. The Mayor's proposed budget amendment shall be deemed approved by operation of law unless the Board finally adopts an amendment to the biennial budget on second reading no later than July 15.
3. The Board's resolution declaring that an upcoming budgetary cycle or cycles shall be fixed, shall include a definition of the term " significant increases or decreases in revenues or expenditures," a deadline for the Controller's submission of a report identifying such increases or decreases, and a deadline for the Mayor to submit to the Board a proposed amendment to the biennial budget in response to the Controller's report.
(h) Nothing in this section shall limit the ability of the Mayor or a member of the Board of Supervisors to introduce at his or her discretion an amendment to a biennial budget at any time during the budgetary cycle.
(Amended by Proposition A, Approved 11/5/2009)