§ 21.12-1205. Adoption of Budget.

 A. The President shall present the Budget Message and the Financial Plan, including the proposed operating and capital budgets, to the Board at a Board meeting at least fifty days prior to the end of the current fiscal year. Any budget recommendations made to the President by the Manager, department heads or staff during his supervision of the preparation of the Financial Plan and budgets and Budget Message, shall be made available to all Commissioners when made to the President.

 Copies of the Budget Message and a summary of the Financial Plan shall be available for distribution to all interested persons attending such meeting or who request them following the meeting. The Financial Plan in its entirety shall be available for public inspection at the Township Building and copies shall be made available at the request of any person upon payment of a reasonable charge therefor.

 B. The Board, acting through committees or as a committee of the whole, shall review all aspects of the proposed operating and capital budgets and may add, delete or modify programs and increase or decrease estimated revenue and amounts allocated as may be required in its judgment. As a part of such process, representatives of each department of the Township and the Manager shall appear before the appropriate committee or committees of the Board and shall explain their views as to the President’s proposed budget and shall discuss generally budgetary considerations regarding their departments.

 Following such consideration, the Board shall adopt a preliminary operating budget which must be balanced so that appropriations are matched by anticipated revenues and the available surplus, and a preliminary capital budget in which proposed expenditures shall not exceed the anticipated available means of financing.

 C. The Board shall cause to be published upon the adoption of such preliminary operating and capital budgets in one or more newspapers of general circulation within the Township:

   1. A general summary of the preliminary operating and capital budgets.

   2. Notice of a public meeting with date, time and place specified at which said preliminary budgets will be considered by the Board.

   3. The times when copies of the preliminary budgets shall be available for inspection by Township residents. Copies of said preliminary budgets in their entirety shall be available for public inspection at the Township Building and copies shall be made available to Township residents upon their request at a reasonable cost to be fixed by the Board.

 D. The Board shall conduct a public hearing which shall follow the publication of notice thereof by no less than fifteen nor more than thirty days to receive the comments and suggestions of the public regarding the preliminary budgets. Such a public hearing may take place at any regular or other official meeting of the Board.

 E. Following the public hearing and before the start of the fiscal year to which the budgets apply, the Board shall by ordinance, with or without amendment of the preliminary budgets, adopt the operating and capital budgets which shall become effective immediately upon adoption and which shall constitute for the ensuing fiscal year appropriations of the amounts specified therein as expenditures from the funds indicated and shall constitute a levy of the taxes therein specified. The operating budget as adopted must be balanced so that appropriations are matched by anticipated revenues and available surplus. In the capital budget as adopted the proposed expenditures must not exceed the anticipated available means of financing.

 F. In the year immediately following any municipal election which is held within ninety days preceding the beginning of the next fiscal year, the Board may within forty-five days after the start of the fiscal year adopt revised budgets, provided that prior to such adoption of revised budgets the proposed revised budgets shall be advertised and a hearing held as hereinabove provided.

 G. To the extent that the procedures for the adoption of the budget set forth in this §  21.12-1205 may be inconsistent with the provisions of Article V, the provisions of this §  21.12-1205 shall prevail.

   Commentary: : The procedure for the adoption of the budget is in many respects similar to that traditionally employed by the Board of Commissioners, except that it is contemplated that the review by the individual committees of the Board and its finance committee will occur following submission of the proposed budget by the President, rather than representing the initiation of the budget process.

   It is the GSC’s view that the President’s submission should occur at least ninety days prior to the end of the fiscal year so as to provide adequate time for review by the departmental committees and the Finance Committee prior to the promulgation of the preliminary budget. In deference to the concern of some members of the Board of Commissioners that there would not be sufficient financial experience in the current fiscal year to permit meaningful budget making, the Charter requirement is set at 50 days.

   The Charter provisions set forth a specific system for the holding of a public hearing prior to the adoption of the budget by the Board. §  21.12-1205F is similar to Section 1701.1 of the Township Code.

   This section cited in 346 Pa. Code §  21.5-501 commentary (relating to general ordinance requirements); and 346 Pa. Code §  21.14-1402 (relating to public right to information).