Wednesday, May 30, 2001

As city officials plunge into bi-annual budget revisions,

preliminary numbers show revenues to be higher than and expenses

on target with projections.

Mayor F.L. &uot;Hank&uot; Smith said expense reports show

the city’s departments to be at 56.8 percent of their budget –

exactly where they should be seven months into the fiscal year.

And thanks in part to increased sales tax receipts, revenues

are slightly up compared to where officials thought they would

be when hammering out the budget last fall.

&uot;It’s good news to me,&uot; Smith said.

The &uot;half-way point&uot; revisions usually take place

in April, six months into the fiscal year, but City Clerk Donnie

Holloway said he is still waiting on the reports from at least

one department.

Even without the final numbers, Holloway said sales tax revenues

are up an average of 3.2 percent over last year. Only September

2000 and February 2001 showed slight decreases from the previous

years’ collections.

&uot;Knock on wood, we’ve been fortunate, because I’ve been

talking to other cities and their’s are down,&uot; Holloway said.

Most cities are attributing the sales tax slowdown to the high

price of fuel, both gasoline and home heating, as well as the

teetering economy.

But somehow Natchez has survived the trend. &uot;If we can

just hold off for four more months, we’ll be doing OK,&uot; Holloway

said.

The increased sales taxes have helped offset unexpected insurance

costs, including a 10-percent jump in liability premiums and a

flood of hospitalizations and surgeries claimed by city employees.

Smith said the expense line would be in even better shape if

not for the insurance costs, but officials could not have forseen

the expenses when planning the budget.

&uot;You can’t predict people getting sick or having surgeries,&uot;

he said,

But while insurance costs pushed expenses up, cutbacks in the

various departments helped keep the overall budget on an even

keel.

Smith asked that the department heads &uot;tighten their belts&uot;

in September, at the same time a moratorium on hiring of city

employees was instituted.

Smith said Tuesday the hiring freeze is still in effect, although

department heads have been and are still allowed to fill vacant

positions. But, the department cutbacks have not gone unnoticed.

&uot;Overall, I think the department heads are doing an excellent

job,&uot; Smith said.

Smith said the overall goal of balancing the city’s budget

– bringing expenses down and revenues up – is to make room for

an across-the-board raise for city employees, most of which haven’t

had a raise in three years.

&uot;These folks deserve some raises. They’ve been without

them for some time now,&uot; he said.