WM. PRESTON LANE, JR., GOVERNOR. 1711

113. TAX KATE, (a) Prior to setting the tax rate for
the coming year, the Mayor and City Council shall require
estimates from the City Manager as to the assessed valuation
of property within the City, the necessary expenditures for
the coming year in the form of a proposed budget, the tax
yield and expenditures of the immediate prior year, the
estimated revenues for the coming year from sources other
than the property tax, and such other data as to the Mayor
and City Council may seem pertinent.

(b) The Mayor and City Council shall sit in special session,
as often as may be necessary to consider the financial esti-
mates and to set the tax rate. The Mayor and City Council
then shall pass ordinances fixing the tax rate for the current
year, not later than June 1 in each year.

114. TAX EXEMPTIONS. (a) The Mayor and City
Council is authorized and empowered to make contracts
exempting from City taxation the real and personal property
or capital stock of any new manufacturing company or enter-
prise, as an inducement to locate in the City. Any such con-
tract shall be limited as to time, and shall not be made for
a period longer than ten years, and shall not be extended or
renewed.

(b) The Mayor and Council of Cumberland shall exempt
from City taxes tracts of land containing not less than five
acres in area located within the City limits and the farm
buildings thereon used exclusively for agricultural purposes
and/or undeveloped waste and woodland, not divided into
lots, divisions or sub-divisions.

115. APPROPRIATIONS, (a) At least four weeks before
the beginning of any fiscal year, the Mayor and City Council
shall by ordinance make appropriations for the next fiscal
year, to the several departments in the City government, in-
cluding the Water Department. When so made, such depart-
mental appropriations shall not be changed, unless the Mayor
and City Council shall transfer moneys from one department
to another.

(b) The Mayor and City Council is authorized to provide
an appropriation to be known as the Contingent Fund, not
to exceed for any one year the sum of $25, 000., and to be used
for corporate and municipal purposes as allocated by the
Mayor and City Council during the said fiscal year.

(c) The Mayor and City Council is authorized to provide
an appropriation to be known as the Special Contingent
Fund, not to exceed for any one year a sum equal to four