NATCHEZ &045;&045; Aldermen on Thursday passed a $20.5 million budget for the fiscal year that starts Saturday, including a tax increase of 5.5 mills, or $55 a year on a $100,000 house.

In response to citizen questions, aldermen said efforts were made to trim the budget as much as possible.

&uot;Every department head had to justify their budget, and finally we had to figure out what we could live with,&uot; Alderman Theodore &uot;Bubber&uot; West said.

The tax hike, which would generate an estimated $522,500 a year, includes 2.575 mills to fund the library and 1.01 mills to fund the Economic Development Authority, freeing up some of general fund money.

It also includes increases of 0.75 mills to serve as matching funds for infrastructure improvements. The rest of the increase will go to the city’s general fund.

The fiscal 2005-2006 budget also includes an increase of $2.50 per household in garbage fees, bringing them up to $13.74 a month. Alderman and Mayor Pro Tem David Massey said that still leaves Natchez’s garbage fees lower than other Mississippi cities such as Vicksburg, Brookhaven and Oxford, which he said charge about $16 a month. And it will bring in $175,000 in extra funds to the city.

Aldermen also decided not to fill two vacant fire and two vacant police positions, saving $100,000.

City officials are also counting on a 3 percent projected increase in sales tax revenues, which would generate an estimated $130,000. Such adjustments would generate an estimated $927,500, enough to cover a projected $800,000 shortfall for the 2005-2006 fiscal year and then some.

In 2000, the city raised millage from 33.033 mills to 37.232 mills. The millage increase that year was dedicated to debt service.

The last increase before that year was in 1986, when millage was raised from 25.435 mills to 33.033.

Aldermen noted the city has been able to make improvements during that time with only one tax increase, including hiring 14 more firefighters &045;&045; which Massey said still hasn’t decreased home insurance rates as expected.

Other improvements mentioned included adapting vacant city properties for new uses, building the convention center and renovating the community center and city auditorium, placing a kiosk at the Forks of the Road, improving the Roth Hill property, paving streets in all six wards and building new fire and police facilities.

It didn’t hurt, Massey said, that the city got $1 million a year from Grand Gulf Nuclear Station revenues until the mid-1990s and get about $1 million in casino revenues each year.

But now, they said, the tax increase and other budget changes are needed to:

4Meet the rising cost of insurance, utilities and fuel.

4Give a $100-a-month raise to more than 30 city employees who haven’t gotten raises in six years. Fire and police employees may be added when the city revises its budget later in the fiscal year.

4Not cut city services. An example Massey pointed out: the city subsidizes garbage service with $22,000 each year from the general fund on top of what households and businesses pay.

4Not cut more than $700,000 given to the library, the EDA and various nonprofits such as the Humane Society and Red Cross.

4To cushion against budget crunches expected in the next couple of years. Those include an increase in convention center indebtedness &045;&045; not in the upcoming fiscal year, but subsequent years &045;&045; and the expected opening of a Wal-Mart in Vidalia, which is expected to cost Natchez about $300,000 a year in tax revenue.

Not everyone was pleased with some of those measures. Marilyn Jackson, who lives in outside the city but owns businesses in Natchez, said police and fire should be given more money, not less.

&uot;The police go out there and their lives are at stake,&uot; she said, listing officials’ salaries, EDA funding and recreation as areas to be cut before police and fire.

To trim the 2005-2006 budget as much as possible, city officials put a freeze on hiring and new vehicles. They reduced the amount of public works equipment and office equipment bought and took such measures as getting multiple departments in City Hall to use the same copier.

They met several nights in recent weeks with department heads and each other to go over why each proposed budget item is needed and to trim expenses where possible. Aldermen said they’ve also asked employees to cut their vehicle mileage as much as possible.

On a night where city officials were proposing a tax increase, perhaps it wasn’t surprising that some of the 30-plus residents that showed up for Thursday’s budget hearing asked why the Natchez area can’t land more industry.

Aldermen cited low overseas wages, the perception of Natchez as a union town and a city only interested in tourism, property owners who are difficult to negotiate with and residents who are sometimes rude or negative to industrial site selectors visiting the city anonymously.

Although they admitted they don’t have all the answers, aldermen said bringing federal officials to see Natchez in person and evaluating why past prospects didn’t locate in Natchez could help land industries in the future. Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis also mentioned that Mayor Phillip West wants to put together a town hall meeting on such topics as economic development in the future.

Massey cited the budget crunch as one reason Natchez needs a condominium development proposed for the Mississippi River bluff. &uot;It needs to be done right, but it needs to be done,&uot; Massey said, referring to citizens’ concerns about the design and size of the proposed complex, which he said could bring in an estimated $300,000 in tax revenue a year.

While some residents gave aldermen credit for taking measures to help cut costs, they did have suggestions for the future, including giving residents at future budget hearings sheets that would compare the proposed budget and millage with the current year’s.

Aldermen also used the occasion to reiterate their call for county supervisors to fund more infrastructure improvements and recreation inside the city.