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NATCHEZ — The Adams County Board of Supervisors will meet Monday to assess the county’s financial health for the current fiscal year and plan for the future.

County Administrator Joe Murray said the meeting would be a pre-budgeting assessment so the supervisors could start considering their options, for example, if they want to give county employees raises next year.

“We are going to talk about where we are at with some of our cash balances at this point compared to last year, look at our cash receipts and expenditures,” he said.

“We are not bad off by any means, but we want to look at our cash and see where we are.”

The meeting will also look at anticipated receipts for the current year, including match money for projects such as the Government Fleet Road Extension, Murray said.

“We’ll also look at last year’s history and see what kind of constant (factors) we are going to have to look at,” Murray said.

“We had to take out money last year to make it to the end of the year, and we need to make sure we are not going to be in that situation this year, and if we are, we need to go ahead and start projecting that.”

Murray said he’s obligated to have periodic meetings with the supervisors, and this falls under that requirement.

Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said the board has not previously had pre-budgeting meetings.

“We have a new county administrator, a new board and a different approach,” Grennell said.

Supervisor Mike Lazarus said he meets with Murray regularly to discuss county issues, and has requested specific information for the meeting.

“There is probably room for amending the budget, so we want to make sure everybody stays within their (department) budget,” Lazarus said.

Any money left over from the department budgets at the end of the fiscal year goes back into the county general fund cash balance, Lazarus said.

“Some people feel that if they don’t spend all their budget by the end of the year, they won’t get it next year, and we want to try to put a stop to that,” he said. “Anything we have left over at the end of the year is better.”

Supervisor Angela Hutchins said she knows the county departments have been staying within their budgets because the supervisors have been making sure the departments only purchase what they need. The pre-budgeting meeting will also help the supervisors determine if any fat needs to be trimmed, she said.

“Before we get started, we first (have to) find out how much we have, and what we have to look forward to, to give us a chance to decide if we need to do any cuts,” she said. “That is the reason I am excited about having this pre-budget meeting.”

Murray said he has requested county departments send in a budget request for next year.

The actual budgeting process will begin in August, Grennell said.