NATCHEZ — County supervisors begrudgingly approved a proposed budget Wednesday, after a lengthy debate about whether or not they had to accept an increase request from the school board.

At the third and final budget hearing this week, Supervisor Henry Watts made a motion to object to the school board’s request for $300,000 in additional taxes.

The county is legally bound to approve the school board’s request as long as it falls below a maximum mill count outlined by the state.

“I think the school board should be going back finding these cuts and not raising taxes on the people of Adams county,” Watts said.

“We can object it, but the law allows them to,” District 3 Supervisor Thomas “Boo” Campbell said.

In a 3-2 vote in favor of objecting to the school board’s tax increase, Watts, District 5 Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter and District 1 Supervisor Mike Lazarus voted to object to the increase.

Campbell and Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell voted against the objection.

Watts said the city and school board depend too much on the county to absorb project funding, such as recreation.

“I’m tired of everybody coming to the county and asking, ‘Well, how much are you going to put up.’ (The city and the school board) don’t have (money) and they’re not going to pay. I’m tired of the county being a stepchild and a kicking boy.”

Although Campbell voted to support the school board’s decision to raise taxes, he questioned the fairness the school board’s request.

“I don’t think the economy needs this right now. I think realistically the school board needs to be more responsible to the citizens of the community as far as taxes go. It’s not fair if we continue to take away from the county. I understand (what Watts) is saying about the school district.”

Campbell said some of the supervisors should have gone to the school board’s public hearing.

Watts said he attended the public hearing, but he did not have a chance to speak due to the large crowd.

When Grennell presented a motion to approve the proposed budget to be submitted for publication in The Democrat ad, which is required by state law to alert the public, Watts delayed the vote to discuss the budget further.

Since the proposed county budget includes the school board’s request for additional funding, county taxes will be higher.

Watts suggested looking over the county budget to see if it was possible to prevent a tax increase. But he said he did not want to use hard-earned budget savings to absorb the school board’s increase.

“Do you know how long it took to do this stuff? Years,” Watts said of the budget savings.

Lazarus agreed, saying absorbing the school’s increase would only encourage the behavior in the future.

“By cutting our budget to make up their difference, you’re funding their irresponsibility. We (would be doing) just what you said don’t do,” Lazarus said.

Grennell said the county should use the recent savings found by the county administrator to perpetuate services to the county and by working to restore the general fund cash balance to improve the bond rating.

“We’re on the right track (to restoring the bond rating). But we don’t want to deviate,” Grennell said.

Grennell asked again for a motion to advertise the budget.

The motion passed 4-1 with Watts voting against advertising the proposed budget.

The budget includes a 2.59- mill increase for county residents living outside the city. City residents will not have to pay an increased tax rate.

“One of the things that’s causing the difference (between the rates in and out of the city limit) is fire protection,” Grennell said. “You’ve got to understand that millage is slightly different outside of the city limits than inside. The county has to pay for fire protection outside city limits to City of Natchez. I think this year going to run about $400,000.”

In years past, the county used gaming money to pay for fire protection, but gaming revenues are down this year.

“We made some adjustments to our millage to try to compensate for the (school board’s increase), but we’re limited in terms of how much we could do. We did drop our millage in order to accommodate for increase of school millage.”

A public hearing is set for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Adams County Board of Supervisors boardroom on State Street to discuss the proposed budget with the public.