TIGHTENING THE BUDGET: County working hard to avoid tax increase in FY 2024-2025

NATCHEZ  — While Adams County’s fiscal year 2024-2025 budget is far from finalized, county administrator Stephanie Washington walked the county’s board of supervisors through a proposed budget draft at a special meeting Friday morning.

The proposed general fund budget currently calls for revenues of $17,734,594 and expenditures of $17,548,683, but those do not include the road department or sheriff’s office budgets. Because of their size, they will be discussed separately.

“This is a bare minimum budget with no raises,” Washington said.

The county’s current budget ends Sept. 30, and the new fiscal year budget begins Oct. 1.

“We are trying to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars and we are trying to implement best practices of government services. We have a hiring freeze, and this budget does not include raises at this point,” Washington said.

The proposed fiscal year budget is a work in progress, she said.

“I am going over this to see if I can further reduce it. My goal is to make certain we have funds that can not only pay our expenses, but hold some back in reserve for emergencies. That is something the auditors have suggested to us to have,” Washington said.

She also plans to meet with county department heads and help with employee scheduling in an effort to reduce the county’s spending on overtime for employees.

“I will say the board itself has decided not to give themselves an increase, which they are entitled to, to make sure county employees can maintain their jobs,” Washington said.

As for the current fiscal year, she said the budget is very tight.

“We have more tax settlements and tax monies that will come in. I have been emailing department heads since I began this job in January to hold them accountable for their budgets. We have been working to not replace employees who leave,” Washington said. “It’s going to be very close (as to whether the county finishes the current fiscal year in the black). I’ve got my fingers crossed.

“I want to stress that I have been working really hard to try not to increase taxes and implement everything I know how not to increase taxes. I’m going to get the auditors to take a look at the budget before it is finalized and I have been working closely with the county attorney (Scott Slover) — just using all resources we have and all of my networking to get the best budget we can possibly have,” she said.

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