Yesterday's Budget Meeting

I was discouraged by a few things regarding yesterday's budget meeting. First off, there was no press notification. I published it in my blog, but assumed any notification would be properly handled by our Chief Administrative Officer as usual. Having the entire board at a meeting without press notification is not only unethical but illegal. I'm meeting with Bryan Hawkings from the Starkville Daily News today to give him an update on what was discussed at the meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to give a preliminary outline of the upcoming fiscal budget. The good news was that so far this year we had budgeted for a 3% increase in our sales tax revenue and we ended up with 3.9% which amounted to around $50,000 extra. The bad news is that our ad valorem taxes came up shorter than expected. Budget committee chairman Matt Cox stated he believed the housing issues affecting the nation could be affecting us locally. Regardless, so far we projected a shortcoming of roughly $200,000 for the next budget year without considering any outside contributions (Red Cross, Boy Scouts, etc) except for the ones we have a legal or emergency obligation to, which include the library, Heritage Museum (because we own the building), Humane Society, and ambulance services for our police/fire departments. Given this budget year isn't over, these numbers could change over the new 2 months; however, there is a chance the board may have to make some difficult decisions for the upcoming year.

I'll scan and provide some of the documents given in a follow up post.