NATCHEZ — Steps are being taken to review county books to make sure the city is getting all of its tax money.

If not, it could ultimately lead to a lawsuit.

But right now it’s very preliminary.

Many years ago, the City of Natchez stopped collecting its own taxes. Taxes are currently obtained through the county tax assessor.

About eight years ago, an auditor was brought in to review the books, and it was brought to the auditor’s attention that the numbers didn’t exactly add up, Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said.

“We had some monies that we (could not) add up or be accountable for coming from the county back to us,” she said.

Specifically, there is a road and bridge ad valorem tax that the city is questioning and wondering whether all monies the city should be getting back are coming its way.

Mathis said in the interlocal agreement code books, the county is supposed to give the city one half of the monies collected from this specific tax.

Either that, or the county would be responsible for the maintenance of some city roads.

In the past, the city has just counted on receiving half of the funds.

However, there’s no real accountability process in place, Mathis said.

City Clerk Donnie Holloway said this is because there’s no real way of knowing how much money they should be getting.

“They set the millage,” Holloway said. “The county’s not cheating us out of anything, they just set the millage.”

So in reviewing the books, the city will know whether they are getting their fair share or not.

Mathis said Hinds County and the City of Jackson had a similar problem where the city sued the county over tax funds.

Holloway said it never went to court because the county agreed to maintain some city roads.

He said the City of Meridian also had a similar problem, so this is not all too uncommon.

Mathis and Holloway both said this has been going on for quite some time.

“We’ve been putting it off for a number of years trying to find out where these funds are,” Mathis said.

As far as the county is concerned, Adams County Board of Supervisors President Henry Watts said he’s never reviewed this agreement.

“I’ve never seen the actual interlocal agreement that established those rates or those percentages, it may be there,” he said.

Holloway said what pulled the trigger for this investigation was not only a very tight budget, but also not having any funds from the county for recreation.

Also, the city and county have an interlocal agreement for the fire department.

The city fire department services the county, and the county pays a certain amount of money to the city for said service.

Awhile back, between 14 and 16 new firefighters were hired, but Mathis said the money given to the city from the county did not increase.

“The monies they are sending are not sufficient for the firefighters we added,” she said.

Holloway said the city has requested $100,000 of the county to offset some of those costs.

Watts said for the past several years, the county has paid a base amount of $520,852.

The account is renewed each year and this year there was a 3 percent raise in the consumer price index so the county upped the amount by $15,000.

But the increase the city is asking, the county will not agree to, Watts said.

“We’re going by what we agreed on,” he said.

All in all, the city is seeking their just amount of money.

Mathis made a motion Monday evening at the budget public hearing to get some sort of auditor to look at the books and a subsequent motion that if any discrepancies are found, a lawsuit be filed.

The board voted unanimously on this motion.

Watts said he believes the city is in a stressful time working the budget and they are grasping at ways to get more money.

“I think the city is acting out of frustration as they go through these budget hearings,” Watts said. “I think they’re acting out of frustration and desperation at this point.

“What they’re probably realizing is that they can no longer afford to mismanage tax payers money, that all governments have to do a better job of managing tax payers money.”