City must get a grip on budget

By Democrat Editorial Board | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Some things in life are just too good to be true, and unfortunately in the days of increased government spending across the country, lower taxes are probably on the “not true” list.

But local taxes are somewhat more in our control than many of the runaway federal expenditures.

The Adams County Board of Supervisors, for example, has made it a priority to prevent new taxes and lower existing ones.

Tax cuts are popular and we applaud the county’s fiscal priorities. But this year the state-mandated changes will assess properties at a higher valuation, resulting in higher taxes, unless the millage rates — assessed by the county, city and school board — are reduced.

If each entity rolls back its millage request so as to zero out any net increase to the average taxpayer, it would give each entity the same amount of dollars as last year.

Otherwise with higher assessments and the same level of millage, the taxes due on any given property are going up.

So far the county and the school district seem confident they can lower their millage requests. But several leaders with the City of Natchez have said it’s too early for them to tell whether or not they can do the same.

The City of Natchez should quickly set it own budget and reduce the level of spending to what was spent last year — sans any carryover or loans for future tax collections.

The city must get its financial house in order quickly and not lean on the state tax assessment correction to help fund its bloated spending.

For the city to even consider pulling in more tax dollars from its citizens during a time of economic uncertainty is almost unfathomable.