What is a Budget?

Budgets are usually written for a fixed period of time called a fiscal year, which is any consecutive 12-month period that an organization uses to plan its expenditures. A complicating feature of governmental budgeting in the United States is that different levels of government depend on one another for funds, but the fiscal years of different jurisdictions usually do not coincide. The fiscal year for the federal government is October 1 to September 30. Many states and localities operate on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year. Others use the January 1 to December 31 calendar year. So a city working on a calendar year would have to put together its budget without knowing what it will be getting from the federal and state governments.