NATCHEZ — In a 3-2 vote, the Adams County Board of Supervisors adopted the 2011 budget.

District 5 Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter and District 2 Supervisor Henry Watts voted against board president Darryl Grennell’s motion to adopt the budget.

Felter and Watts said they did not approve the budget because it included a 2.59 mill increase for county residents outside the city limits.

Watts said if the board had met earlier and more often to discuss the budget, the supervisors might have been able to find more cuts to absorb the school board’s tax increase for residents outside city limits.

“We’re headed for a second recession. I don’t think this is a good time to raise property taxes,” Watts said.

He said the supervisors should do a better job monitoring collection of justice court, circuit court and garbage collection fees in the future — a revenue that could have absorbed the increase.

Watts said more than $2.5 million in overdue fees has built up during the last approximately 10 years of unpaid court and garbage collection fees.

Watts said the supervisors should have done a better job monitoring automobile use and cell phone use, to suggest areas where the board could have found cuts.

District 3 Supervisor Thomas “Boo” Campbell agreed the board should do a better job monitoring and scrutinizing the expenditures on a countywide level. However, Campbell said he did not know what the board could have done to prevent the tax increase in the coming year’s budget.

“The whole country is experiencing what we’re going through right now, and I don’t know what we could have done,” Campbell said.

Before voting on the budget, Grennell discussed with the board a request he received Monday afternoon from Mayor Jake Middleton asking the county for to pay the city an additional $50,000 for fire protection.

Grennell said the request was denied due to lack of action by the board.

Grennell said he asked the mayor why the supervisors received the request the same week it was supposed to adopt a budget.

Grennell said Middleton responded that he issued the request at the order of the board of aldermen.

Watts said the request, which was accompanied by a one-page list of fire department salaries, failed to include a justification for the increase.

The 2011 budget includes projected revenue of $22,396,922. Of that amount, 57.56 percent, or $12,892,857 will be funded by property taxes.

For the 2010 fiscal year, the county’s budget revenue is $24,487,920, with 54.88 percent, or $12,892,857 funded by property taxes.

Residents in the city will pay 109.97 mills, which has not changed from this year.

Residents outside city-limits will pay 112.71, up from 110.12 in 2010.