NATCHEZ — City of Natchez leaders dissected the city’s budget Monday, but took little action after nearly three hours of analysis and discussion.

The city’s overall $37.7 million budget has a nearly $3 million surplus, but a $857,199 deficit in the general fund concerned members of the Board of Aldermen.

Alderman Dan Dillard took charge of budget discussions during the board’s meeting Monday, going through multiple department and line items with Mayor Butch Brown and City Clerk Donnie Holloway, attempting to “find the hemorrhaging” that caused the general fund deficit.

“It’s not in certain departments, such as fire, police and some of the others, but it’s all these other things gong on around us,” Dillard said. “It’s not the services we’re providing themselves, but it’s the cost of some of the things associated with the services, and that’s a problem.”

Alderman Mark Fortenbery agreed with Dillard multiple times that finding out-of-place expenditures was important, he also continually asked board members to turn their attention to finding a solution to the deficit.

“The first priority we need is finding the $800,000 and then we can move on,” Fortenbery said. “You’re about to publicize this budget, and I think this board would appreciate $1 million taken out of this before we adopt a budget.”

Brown urged board members not to get fixated on the deficit, suggesting instead aldermen consider going back and revising the budget later to balance the general fund.

When board members asked where the money to balance the fund would come from, Brown listed a few potential incomes including the sale of surplus properties, which he said brought in $450,000 last year.

Brown declined to name any specific properties to board members potentially for sale, saying having them publicized in local media outlets would jeopardize the chances of the sale.

Dillard said the idea of adopting a budget with a deficit and other issues was not the right decision.

Dillard pointed to several instances in the budget in which projected revenues for the upcoming fiscal year were significantly higher than the actual amount received last year.

“We need to budget our revenues very conservatively, and if the money comes in, we’ll revise the budget up,” Dillard said. “The idea is if the money doesn’t come in, we’ll budget down but that never happens.

“I think if we can go through and find all those instances of higher projected revenues and balance them out, we’ll have a much more realistic budget to balance against our revenues.”

Fortenbery and alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith suggested the board begin looking at across-the-board cuts that could be made to alleviate the deficit in the general fund.

“All this would be a whole lot easier if we had reports that we can understand,” Smith said, pointing to a 71-page budget document. “We should be able to walk in, look at something simple and see where we can cut or what’s not being spent right.”

The board unanimously voted to keep the same 42.73 mills as the amount used for ad valorem taxes.

Brown said he felt the discussions Monday were constructive and provided Holloway with plenty of feedback to improve budget projections.

“All this feedback is exactly what’s supposed to happen with the budgeting process,” Brown said. “We haven’t raised taxes in this city in years, and we’re going to continue that while looking at ways to balance our budget.”