Ala. Code § 11-44C-55
After the current expense budgets have been adopted and before the beginning of the fiscal year, the head of each department, office, and agency, shall submit to the mayor in such form as the mayor shall prescribe a work program which shall show the requested appropriations for such department, office or agency for the entire fiscal year by monthly or quarterly periods as the mayor may direct. If at any time during the fiscal year the mayor shall ascertain that the revenue cash receipts of the general fund or any public utility for the year plus any cash surplus available from the preceding year, will be less than the total appropriations to be met from such receipts and the surplus, he or she shall reconsider appropriations of the departments, offices and agencies, and, subject to the laws of the State of Alabama and any municipal ordinances of the city relating to obligatory expenditures for any purpose, revise the appropriations so as to forestall the incurring of a deficit; provided, however, that there shall be no reduction in salaries except by order of the council, or as authorized by law.
Ala. Code § 11-44C-55 (1975)