[8/20/03]Vicksburg officials say they will present a balanced budget to the public Thursday night, meaning next year’s spending will not rely on reserves.

The hearing will be at 7 p.m. at City Hall Annex where Vicksburg’s mayor and aldermen will present a spending plan of about $27.9 million to go into effect Oct. 1. Before then, officials are hoping to shave about $224,000 from the plan to balance it with projected revenue of about $27.7 million for next year.

No increase or decrease in tax rates is projected.

“We are trying to position government to be fiscally responsible with the taxpayers’ money and take the guess work out of the budget,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

Revenue for the new year is expected to be up about $1.6 million due increased property values and the budget assigns the new money to a variety of purposes.

For this year, the city is expected to spend about $30.8 million with about $4.6 million of that coming from reserve accounts. Today, there is roughly $12 million in the account that has built up over the past 10 years.

The largest reductions in the proposed spending plan are in capital improvements and in payroll costs. Overall, personnel costs are about 60 percent of the total budget, but down from the current year’s cost despite raises.

The reduction was created by eliminating 23 unfilled full-time positions. Most of those were labor positions, Leyens said.

The proposed spending plan shows few significant changes, although most departments were cut by at least 10 percent. The biggest difference will be in spending for parks and recreation which was split into two separate budgets.

Spending this year is about $1.2 million, but the proposed plan for the coming year shows spending about $583,830 for recreation and a separate $461,210 for park and recreation maintenance. Total spending for the two combined is about $1 million.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman, who had been director of parks and recreation for eight years, said splitting the departments would give more autonomy for the directors to take care of specific areas.

“We just felt that it would be better to have two separate departments so that Craig (Upton, parks and recreation director,) could concentrate on recreational programs and playgrounds and someone else can concentrate on the day-to-day maintenance,” Beauman said.

The plan being presented Thursday night will not include last year’s $17.5 million bond issue or the recently approved $5.8 million bond issue. The first bond is being repaid out of general fund tax dollars and the second is expected to result in an increase in water, sewer and gas rates in the coming year.

Revenue from the two bonds are being used for infrastructure improvements including downtown urban renewal, water and sewer improvements in the annexed areas and a proposed softball complex. Those funds also paid for road improvements including Porters Chapel Road and downtown Washington Street.

Overall, Vicksburg’s spending has tripled in the decade since the first casino opened with major new projects funded including all-new fire and police equipment and several stations, the downtown convention center and street surfacing and resurfacing programs.