The Birmingham City Council is expected to pass a $428 million operating budget on Tuesday, six months after the start of the current fiscal year.

The 2017-18 fiscal year budget -- with changes recommended by new Mayor Randall Woodfin -- includes cutting funding to the Birmingham Construction Industry Authority, a non-profit that works to build minority participation in construction projects.

"Honestly, I would like to see this budget passed tomorrow," Woodfin said to members of the Birmingham City Council during a Monday afternoon committee meeting. "From an operational and department standpoint, it is time."

He asked the councilors to make the budget the first item on the agenda for Tuesday's council meeting so city employees could receive their cost of living raises and longevity pay by Christmas.

The 2017-18 fiscal year started July 1. The city council failed to reach a compromise on the budget with former Mayor William Bell before Bell left office in November.

The city has been operating based on the prior year's spending levels.

Woodfin's budget includes $606,731 in cuts to the mayor's office. Birmingham City Schools would receive an additional $1.27 million bringing the total of city funding to $3 million. The proposed budget also cuts funding to the city's new Healthy Food Initiative.

Woodfin said work starts on the fiscal year 2018-19 budget in January. He said he wants the council to be a part of the process at that time.

"If we can get through tomorrow, I am ready to start that conversation with you Wednesday on those wants (for the budget), needs and priorities on those needs," Woodfin said.

Woodfin said he wants the city to stop funding the Birmingham Construction Industry Authority because it has failed at its mission of building capacity for minority-owned contracting companies.

The mayor said the city isn't required to fund the organization.

In the initial proposed budget, $350,000 was allocated to BCIA. Woodfin cut that amount to $225,000 to only pay for the first six months of the year.

Michael Bell, executive director of the Birmingham Construction Industry Authority, requested a meeting with Woodfin before deciding to stop funding the program. He said the city's funding is about half of the non-profit's budget. Bell said BCIA is limited by state law.

The BCIA, non-profit organization, was created by consent decree in 1990 and charged with expanding minority participation in public and private construction projects within the greater Birmingham area.

In 1977 and again in 1989, the city of Birmingham had passed an ordinance requiring 10 percent minority participation on its public construction projects. It was sued each time by the Alabama Associated General Contractors and lost.

The Alabama AGC instead proposed to the Jefferson County Circuit Court the creation of a voluntary program to increase minority participation. Out of this, the BCIA was formed.