NATCHEZ &8212; The county budget passed 4 to 1 at Friday&8217;s special board of supervisors meeting.

The dissenting vote was Supervisor Henry Watts.

&8220;I don&8217;t think we cut departments enough,&8221; Watts said. Watts said he wanted to give each department the same amount as last year&8217;s budget did.

Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said after the meeting that was not a reasonable way to approach the budget process.

&8220;Each budget is different,&8221; Grennell said. &8220;You can&8217;t just allocate the same amount you had last year.&8221;

Supervisor S.E. &8220;Spanky&8221; Felter voted for the budget, but said he has some reservations.

&8220;I think we could have done more,&8221; Felter said, referring to cutting back.

The only change between the previously proposed budget and the one the board passed was a change from the school district, Assistant Administrator Charlie Brown said. Brown said they had just given him a revised school district budget.

The school board adjusted their budget requests to meet the county&8217;s set millage rate, County Administrator Cathy Walker said. Because the school board just met, she said, they had not had a chance to revise their budget before now.

The millage on the final budget will stay the same as the proposed budget, about a half a percent of a mil.

The topic of County Attorney Bob Latham&8217;s travel expenses came up, as well. The recent trip to visit the Rentech plant in Illinois was cited as an example.

&8220;If Bob goes on trips, and he charges by hour per day, we ought to put a cap on it,&8221; Watts said.

Supervisor Sammy Cauthen said if the attorney was doing work for the county, he should charge the county for it.

&8220;Who&8217;s to say when we were up there and someone asked a legal question, what were we going to say, &8216;We&8217;ll wait to get home and ask Bob&8217;?&8221; Cauthen said.

Supervisor Thomas &8220;Boo&8221; Campbell said he thought the topic was something to consider, but the county should continue pursuing industrial interests.

&8220;To have an attorney with us when we go on trips is essential,&8221; Campbell said.

The single public comment was from Ser Sesh Ab Heter C.M. Boxley. Boxley asked the board to consider in the future designating money to the Forks of the Road historic site. The board said some years back it would think about buying some land for the project.

&8220;Since 2002, the county has had some misfortunes,&8221; Cauthen said.

Campbell said he thought the board might want to revisit the issue later, but there was no money for it in the budget now.

In other business:

4 The board approved a bid to upgrade the county&8217;s mainframe computer system, Grennell said after an executive session. The only bid came from Premise. The bid also covers hardware upgrades for the geographic information system in the tax assessor&8217;s office, he said. The bid was for $349,000, much less than the county originally expected to pay, Chancery Clerk Tommy O&8217;Beirne said.