NATCHEZ — Another month with a dip in sales tax means city officials may have to revisit the idea of layoffs.

Budget woes have hit Natchez hard for several months, and the mayor and aldermen have said the only place left to cut may be personnel.

Sales tax numbers for April were down by 1.02 percent from the previous April. Numbers are reported three months late.

April revenues were $424,938, compared to the $429,273 that was collected in April of 2008, City Clerk Donnie Holloway said.

Collections from April were also down compared to March 2009. In March, $455,321 was collected, making April’s numbers a 7.15 percent decrease.

Wavering collections and the economic recession have led the board of aldermen to ask department heads to cut between 2 and 5 percent of their budgets.

The city recently approved a $500,000 loan to help balance the budget until the end of the fiscal year in October.

The loan will not entirely bridge the gap, and Holloway had originally asked the board to take out a $1.1 million loan.

City officials were unwilling to borrow such a large amount and decided they would hunt through the budget for ways to shave down expenditures.

As a result, city leaders met for two weeks of budget hearings. The city has begun tracking interfund loans from the general fund to various city departments in an attempt to better control spending.

City officials have said unaccounted, non-repayable loans have dug a hole in the city budget, which causes the city to borrow money to boost itself into the black at the end of each fiscal year.

A hiring freeze was enacted at the beginning of the year and layoffs have also been discussed.

Mayor Jake Middleton said while no decisions to layoff have been made yet, layoffs will be discussed during the city’s work session at 4 p.m. today.

“There hasn’t been anything in concrete,” he said. “Nothing has come across this desk. We’ve talked about the possibility, but that’s as far as it’s gone.”

He said the discussion, which has been open for several months, will continue as long as the budget is being sorted out.