With just a half-dozen residents in the room Thursday evening for a hearing on the City of Vicksburg’s proposed $31.3 million budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the mayor and aldermen fielded only a few questions on their spending plan, mostly concerning contributions to nonprofit organizations.

“We cut back on all non-profits (requests) this year, and we did that because we have an ultimate obligation to provide the basic services that the citizens deserve and we have employees that we have to tend to as well,” Mayor Paul Winfield said in response to a last-minute request for $25,000 by Tina Hayward, director of the Mountain of Faith Ministries homeless shelter for women and children.