City and county leaders have approximately a month to finalize their budgets and approve them before the start of the new fiscal year.

We’ve long said this period of time is when we need elected officials the most, as the budget work is critical to the community.

Cynics among us might argue that the budget is just a plan and that city and county departments will merely spend whatever they want regardless of that plan.

But the Natchez Board of Aldermen and the Adams County Board of Supervisors have a unique position — they are the holders of the purse strings.

Both boards can determine exactly how much taxpayer money is allocated to each department — with the independent Natchez-Adams School District being an exception to that.

We’d encourage our elected leaders to consider taking a different approach to budgeting this year rather than simply starting with figures based on last year’s expenditures.

Why not ask department heads earn their managerial keep a bit? Have them bring forth a two-budget scenario — one illustrating how their department would be operated with 10 percent less funding and another showing the impact of 20 percent less funding.

The exercise would likely show elected leaders one of two things — waste does exist in city and county government or the department heads aren’t good managers of resources.

Either way the taxpayers would stand to win.