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Learn About the Budget
A budget
is the financial plan for a person or an organization, such as the
city of Nashville, that defines how it will raise and spend money,
and what it will achieve with it. For example, your home budget
lays out where your money comes from -- your wages or other income
-- and what you will spend it on -- food, shelter, transportation,
clothes, and so on.
For
a government, the budget is more than just a plan. It is also legal
document that authorizes that government to raise and spend the
money it needs to operate. Since we live in a democracy, it's really
YOUR authorization, through your elected representatives, for it
to spend your money to provide public services for you and your
neighbors.
American
federal, state, and local governments define their budget processes
through laws. They also generally divide up who does what in the
budget process. This is one part of the "separation of powers"
we learn about in civics class.
In
Nashville, the law that defines the budget process is the Metro
Charter. It says that we prepare a budget for one year at a time.
It says that year, the "fiscal year," starts on July 1
and ends the following June 30. It says that the budget for that
fiscal year cannot spend more money than it generates. It says that
the executive branch of government -- the Mayor and his officials
-- prepares the budget by May 25. It gives the Council the power
to approve or amend the budget, but requires that a budget be passed
by June 30. It empowers the various operating departments, agencies,
and offices of the government to collect and spend the money throughout
the fiscal year to provide services; but it also says they do so
under the control and oversight of the Finance Department. Finally,
it says that an independent accountant must audit the government
at the end of each year, and that the audit report must be publicly
published.
That's
the big picture. Each of the links below provides more information
about the various parts of Metro’s budget process. We hope
you find them helpful, and please don’t hesitate to let us
know if you have any questions or comments.
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