A lower deficit is in the offing for the Warren County Port Commission as budget talks ended Monday with an approved spending plan.

Spending will outpace revenue by $65,041 for fiscal 2008-09, less than half the $142,000 deficit the industrial authority faced coming into this year.

Notable spending cuts came in office rents, resulting from the move of commission offices to the Guaranty Bank building on Cherry Street. Rents are projected at $3,600, down considerably from the $26,700 paid when offices operated out of the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce on Mission 66.

Increased spending on advertising industrial resources will focus on updating the commission’s Web site, said Wayne Mansfield, executive director.

Still, revenues are forecast ahead of a pending new contract with Kinder Morgan to operate the port.

“We’re still trying to get a handle on what our revenues are,” Mansfield said.

A contract remains contingent on the bulk cargo operator sewing up a deal with other firms to help move steel to the SeverCorr plant in northeast Mississippi, commissioners said. More than $300,000 in operating revenue in the budget comes from expected base rent and additional land leases with the company.

Despite the protracted contract talks, tonnage ramped up at the port in June, bolstered by Kinder Morgan’s reconstruction of an approach deck at the T-dock crane support. Just more than 9,960 tons were unloaded for the month, up from 6,680 in May. Revenue totaled $104,392.37, up from $63,538.37 in May.

Work continued to repair a small gouge from a barge that struck the platform while a new fender system was built, the panel was told by County Engineer John McKee.

Leases took up most of commission business, as the board voted to advertise two leases concerning a combined 3,262 feet of real estate at the port. Currently, the lessees are Big River Shipbuilding and Magnolia Marine.

“We want to be where we wouldn’t be making a subjective decision,” chairman Johnny Moss said.

A third, with Bonnie Lake and Hinds hunting clubs, was also put up for re-advertisement. While not addressing directly an offer of more money by the clubs, the board OK’d asking for an attorney general’s opinion on the wording of the lease.

An additional pact for one of two parcels on the west side of Ceres leased by T.G. Mercer Consulting Services was renewed. The firm has stored sections of the Southeast Supply Header natural gas transmission pipeline under construction.