NATCHEZ &045; To offset increasing insurance costs, aldermen voted Tuesday to borrow up to $500,000 against tax revenues the city should receive early next year.

Close to $200,000 is already needed to pay increasing liability insurance costs, &uot;and we’re expecting tax shortfalls in the coming month,&uot; City Clerk Donnie Holloway told the board Tuesday.

Examples of increasing insurance costs include a 60 percent increase in insurance for vehicles for the Natchez Senior Citizen Multipurpose Center and a 20 percent increase in worker’s compensation insurance.

Insurance costs increased because the city had to switch insurance companies, since liability insurer St. Paul canceled the city’s policy last year. As a result of that cancellation, aldermen voted in February to enter into an agreement with the Joint Municipal Liability Plan for insurance.

Increased costs &uot;are happening to a lot of cities, not just us,&uot; Holloway said.

The city will draw the loan funds as needed and may not need to use the full $500,000, said Alderwoman Sue Stedman. The city will now solicit bids from local banks for the loan, Holloway said.

Aldermen also voted to make a $50,000 loan from the city’s gaming fund to its health insurance fund.

The city’s insurance company is now debiting the city’s account for payments rather than the city cutting checks to the company, &uot;and it’s got us in kind of a bind,&uot; making the interfund loan necessary, Holloway said.

In the same meeting, the city agreed to allocate up to $22,000 to cover some expenses of the countywide Recreation Commission during this fiscal year.

&uot;They (the commission) had originally brought us a budget of $66,000,&uot; said Alderman and Mayor Pro-Tem David Massey. However, the city managed to cut that budget by one-third by providing in-kind services, he said.

Neither county supervisors nor the Natchez-Adams School Board has committed to a specific amount of funding for the commission, commission Chairman Joe Eidt said.

The commission is charged with planning, and getting on the ballot, a program of countywide recreation construction and improvements to existing facilities.

To do such planning, as well as &uot;selling&uot; of the ballot proposal, the commission asked in August for a total of $63,500 from the city, county and school board through September 2004.