NATCHEZ — The Natchez Board of Aldermen approved Wednesday a budget of $37.8 million in revenues and $36.4 in expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year.

The budget is approximately $13 million more than the current fiscal year’s budget.

Mayor Butch Brown said the increase is largely because the city has received several grants for various projects, including the replacement of the historic toll booth colonnades and the restoration for the downtown railroad depot.

Brown pointed to departmental budget increases, repairs to public properties and equipment expenses as other reasons the budget is increasing.

Brown said he did not believe the increase was due to salary and benefit expenses, despite several new hires the city has made in the past year.

“I think it’s costing us the same or less because we have, the last time I counted, 30 people that are part-time or on contract, and we don’t pay benefits or insurance for them,” he said.

The city publicly advertised a $34 million but adopted a $37.8 million budget. City Clerk Donnie Holloway presented the $37.8 budget at a public hearing last week.

Holloway said when the budget was calculated, several funds did not make it into the final calculation. He said Wednesday that when entering the data into the accounting system, the system requires an amount and a code. The information that was put into the system to calculate the total budget was not properly coded, Holloway said.

City Attorney Hyde Carby said since the city did not raise taxes nor increase millage, he does not believe the city violated state statute by adopting a budget amount that is different than the one advertised.

Major funds in the budget include:

-Natchez Police Department: approximately $3 million

-Natchez Fire Department: approximately $2.42 million

-Natchez Transit System: $2.2 million

-Recreation: approximately $1 million

-Sanitary administration: $999,881

-Natchez Public Works: $752,657

-Visitor’s center operations: $709,350

-Duncan Park Golf Course: $585,592

-Utilities: $574,846

-Judge George W. Armstrong Library: $374,654

-Information technology: $326,702

-City clerk’s office: $311,994

-Office of inspections: $288,942

-Engineering: $280,124

-Traffic: $235,151

-Planning and community development: $234,557

-Mayor’s office: $166,711

In other news from the meeting:

4The board voted to adopt an insurance plan from United Health Care, changing from its current provider of Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The city’s insurance agent, Randy Hazlip, presented a plan that would cost the city approximately $1.77 million. The plan he presented from Blue Cross Blue Shield would cost the city approximately $2.1 million.

The United Health Care figure factored in fees associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Hazlip said. The Blue Cross Blue Shield figure did not, he said.

The $1.77 million figure will drop by approximately $430,000 in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, Mayor Butch Brown said.

City employees’ deductible will remain at $1,500 as it has been in the past. The overall cost for employees will remain the same.

Finalizing the plan, Hazlip said, should be done relatively quickly. But finalizing the prescription drug formularies may take longer. The function of a prescription formulary is to determine particular medications that are approved to be prescribed under an insurance policy.

Hazlip recommends that all city employees on prescription medication get their prescriptions filled before the current insurance plan expires Monday. That will ensure, he said, that no employee has to do without medication if the formularies are not prepared by Monday.