One of nine people attending Thursday night’s public hearing on the city budget reviews numbers while former Mayor Joe Loviza addresses the City Board.(C. Todd Sherman The Vicksburg Post)

[8/22/03]Local charities will see a 25 percent cut in city funding while customers of municipal utilities will be asked to pay an additional 11 percent for natural gas and 15 percent for water in the coming year.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen presented their proposed $27.1 million spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 at a public hearing Thursday.

Tax rates remain level in the plan, but the city’s income grows due to higher valuations and construction of new properties to be taxed.

Of the nine people who attended the meeting, four commented on the spending plan expected to be formally adopted Sept. 2.

City officials said that next year’s spending will be the lowest since 1997, but the $27.1 million operating costs does not include capital expenses being funded by $23.3 million in bonds. Previous budget amounts have included millions of dollars in capital improvements funded by tax revenue.

Overall, spending by departments is about the same as in previous years. The parks and recreation department was split into two separate funds, and the planning and community planning departments were combined into a single account.

“It’s amazing when you start building a budget how philosophical you can get when trying to decide what the priorities are when you have limited resources,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

Plans call for a 25 percent reduction next year and another 25 percent reduction the following year in city contributions to organizations such as the United Way, Haven House, Child Abuse Prevention Center and other charities. Leyens said they hope to wean those organizations off taxpayer dollars in the future.

“As a board, we decided we shouldn’t be taxing citizens for charities,” he said.

City officials could not give exact numbers for the planned increase in water and natural gas rates, but said it could be as little as $2 to $3 per household monthly. Currently, the city subsidize those funds from cash reserves built up over the past 10 years.

“Water and gas are life-giving services and it’s appropriate to subsidize life-giving services so everyone can afford it, but the reality is there are always going to be people who can’t afford it,” Leyens said.

The budget still calls for a subsidy to those funds even after the increase. Revenue in the water operating fund is expected to be down next year because of the closing of Vicksburg Chemical plant, and natural gas rates are expected to continue increasing, said city strategic planner Paul Rogers.

The water fund will receive an injection of $814,890 from reserve accounts, and the gas fund will get $515,000. The reserve fund is at about $11 million today.

“If we can subsidize the Convention Center then surely we can subsidize water and gas,” said John Shorter, citizen and regular speaker at city board meetings.

The Vicksburg Convention Center is run by a private management company and receives about $1 million annually from city coffers for debt service and as an operating subsidy.

“We’re bitting bullets that nobody else did,” said North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young now in her third term. “In other administrations when we tried to do it we backed out.”

The last water rate increase was during the previous administration under former Mayor Robert Walker. During the administration under former Mayor Joe Loviza, the city board voted for an increase to garbage rate, but rescinded that vote the next day.

Water and natural gas rates require a board action and an amendment to the city code which is a separate action from the budget. Once passed, new rates would take 30 days to go into effect.