Investment Opportunities for Lowndes County

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Legislators recently passed a bill to allow the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors to establish a reserve and trust fund. The money comes from the sale of baptist more than 5 years ago. Money, county administrator Ralph Billingsley says, that was not being used.

“When we initially invested, we were earning 5.2% , so about 1 million was being earned on the 30 million. Now we’re earning two-tenths of 1% so we’re not earning any money. If we can have some additional investment options to get those interest earnings back up, we could do additional things for the citizens without raising taxes,” said Billingsley.

Harry Sanders, Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President says the money has helped improve the county’s infrastructure in the past.

“I think it’s a win-win situation. Back when we were earning 5%, we were able to build a new health department, we were able to build a new justice court building. We were able to buy the old first federal building and turn it into the tax office and county administrators office,but in the last 2 .5 to 3 years, we haven’t been able to do that. So hopefully this will be one of the answers to our finances for the city,” said Sanders.

Sanders believes it will continue to help improve the county in the future.

“We can improve our roads, we can improve our recreation facilities in the county, we can help improve our fire coverage west of the river. There are an awful lot of things that we need money for that we just don’t have right now and this will certainly help,” said Sanders.

The board of supervisors will vote to pass the trust fund at their next meeting. After that, they’ll make proposals on how they will invest the money.

 

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