§ 47–318.03. Mayoral budget submissions required; accounting of expenditures — Gap-closing actions.

(a) In the annual budget request, the Mayor shall provide the Council with all gap-closing actions for the upcoming fiscal year budget. Gap-closing actions include increases in current revenue bases and rates; new taxes, fees, charges, fines, forfeitures, and penalties; expenditure reductions associated with lower service levels; and productivity improvements that yield expenditure reductions without a decrease in service levels.

(b) If the Council rejects gap-closing actions of the Mayor either in the annual budget request or any budget modification, it must substitute 1 or more of its own gap-closing actions to make up the amount of the rejected gap-closing actions.

(c) Within 30 days after the end of each month, the Mayor shall provide the Council with a progress report on those gap-closing actions that the Council designates for monitoring.

(d) The Mayor or Mayor’s designee(s) shall appear before a hearing of the Committee of the Whole every 2 months to respond to questions regarding gap-closing actions.

(e) The Mayor shall replace, in the Mayor’s budget modification submission, any gap-closing actions that the Council determines to be in serious danger of failure with gap-closing actions more likely to occur. However, the Mayor may not replace gap-closing actions approved by the Council in any budget adoption process merely because the Mayor does not support such actions.

(f) If the Mayor determines that the budget gap has increased from the submission of the Mayor’s budget request to the submission of the first budget modification, or from the submission of 1 budget modification to the submission of another, the Mayor must increase the aggregate dollar value of the gap-closing actions to cover the difference. If the Mayor determines that the budget gap has decreased from the submission of the Mayor’s budget request to the submission of the first budget modification, or from the submission of 1 budget modification to the submission of another, the Mayor may decrease the aggregate dollar value of the gap-closing actions to eliminate the difference.