[8/27/04]Vicksburg’s public hearing on its proposed spending plan for the coming year featured questions from a former mayor that riled the current one.

“You’re grandstanding and you’re self-serving, and that’s fine because that’s what we expect of you,” Mayor Laurence Leyens said to former Mayor Joe Loviza. “You’re asking silly questions that you very well know the answer to and adding your own spin.”

Loviza insisted his questions were sincere, including one about a $31,000 increase in the budget for RCTV 23, which provided live coverage of the required hearing to Vicksburg Video customers.

“I’m not here to play a game,” Loviza said.

“Well, it feels like it,” Leyens responded.

The overall city plan allocates $30.9 million, including $2 million from reserve accounts, for use during the 12 months starting Oct. 1. Municipal elections are in 2005 and the budget, like all developed by city officials since the first casino opened 11 years ago, does not require an increase in property tax rates.

Loviza, mayor from 1993 to 1997, asked questions ranging from how the city projected revenue to the fate of the MV Mississippi, a city-owned former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flagship. Paul Rogers, strategic planner for the city, explained that revenue projections were based on previous years’ estimates, and Leyens stated that showcasing the MV Mississippi, now berthed at the Vicksburg Harbor, is in the Corps’ plans for an eventual museum complex at City Front.

Loviza also criticized economic development efforts.

“We are eroding the city tax base by tearing down structures that could be renovated,” Loviza said. “You can’t build the future on tourism alone because tourism is too up and down.”

North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young responded, stating that most of the industries that have left the city in recent years have already been replaced. She also stated that although new industries at the Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex are outside the municipal limits, many of the employees live and shop in Vicksburg.

Loviza has not stated publicly if he intends to run for mayor again in 2005. In the last city elections, he finished third behind Leyens, a first-time candidate who polled 4,271 votes and Robert M. Walker, the incumbent who had defeated Loviza four years earlier. Walker’s total was 3,601 votes and Loviza’s was 331.

Although a dozen people attended the meeting, only four, including Loviza made comments.

Questions about the budget were also raised by John Shorter, a federal employee who frequently attends city board meetings and public hearings.

“You’ve got a $3 million budget increase here, but we have yet as long as the casinos have been here to see a decrease in the cost of living,” Shorter said.

City officials responded by saying that they had little control over the cost of living.

Overall the proposed budget includes a $400,000 pool of funds for employee merit-based raises, funding for improvements at the police department and $650,000 for street repaving.