The City operates on a fiscal year that begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The budget for the City is adopted each September after a thorough review process involving staff and City Council. Budget requests are driven by various plans to include strategic plans, the major thoroughfare plan, and the parks/pathways plan. The budget is drafted using a modified zero-based budgeting model; new budgets are not derived merely by increasing previous years budgets, but are based on analyzing each request on an as-needed basis without the assumption that funding exists.