Local Government Budgets are About to go into Effect

LOUISVILLE-ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI)- Saturday was the deadline for county and municipal budgets, and while there’s a flurry of activity in the first couple of weeks of September, the real work has been going on for months.

Many people don’t give much thought to city and county budgets until they come up for a vote and approval.

But getting the annual spending plan to that stage takes months of prep work, and involves several people working together to get the most bang for the buck.

“I meet with every department head, and I say what’s your wish list and what your wants what’s your wish list, and we go from there I’m not gonna say we will get it but that’s their wish list,” said Debbie Boley.

Besides just the bottom line, there are other things that have to be taken into consideration.

“Police, fire, the public safety factor providing a better quality of life Parks and Recreation we do The best that we can with our infrastructure needs providing what is expected of the citizens for Louisville,” said Mayor Will Hill.

Boards have to work closely with those who will be spending the money to make sure their priorities line up.

“The key is to have those heads that our department heads to make sure that they watch it all year throughout the year I want to do that and make sure budgeting a little more simple a little easier we are a very conservative board, and we just don’t overspend,” said Mayor Tim Cutts.

Sometimes cities look outside of their area to see what’s working for others.

“How are the towns and cities across the state of Mississippi. How do they make things happen? I want to see what was put in place there. What we did was a model of what was done in certain cities across the state many years ago. We can’t go back and do that years ago we started now so that we’re setting the city for prosperity in the future,” said Mayor Hill.

Budgets also help individual departments stay on track.

“It’s important because you don’t know where you’re going if you don’t have a budget to standby. Like your personal life, you know, you have to have a budget, or you’re just gonna be spending on the wrong things the wrong items and not have enough money for the right things in the right items,” said Boley.

The 2018-2019 budgets will go into effect October 1st.