§ 79. Contracts and expenditures prohibited. No officer, board, or
department shall, during any fiscal year, expend or contract to be
expended any money or incur any liability, or enter into any contract
which, by its terms, involves the expenditure of money for any of the
purposes for which provision is made in the annual estimate in excess of
the amounts appropriated in said estimate, as adopted by the common
council, for such officer, board, department or purpose, for such fiscal
year. Any contract, verbal or written, made in violation of this section
shall be null and void as to the city, and no moneys belonging to the
city shall be paid thereon, provided, however, that nothing herein
contained shall prevent the making of contracts for light or water, the
collection and disposal or the disposal of garbage, the collection and
removal of rubbish and ashes, the cleaning of streets, or the sprinkling
of streets or public places by railway cars, for periods exceeding one
year.

Nothing herein contained, however, shall be held to prohibit the
expenditure of such sums as may be made available, pursuant to section
seventy-six of this chapter or section 29.00 of the local finance law.