[8/26/03]Charities are saying they will be devastated by cuts in Vicksburg’s budget if the Mayor and Aldermen approves 25 percent funding cuts.

“It’s scary,” said Stacy Waites, director of the 807 HIV Clinic, created by the city and county to provide local services to people diagnosed with the AIDS virus. “It’s getting close to not having enough to have a clinic at all,” she said.

At their budget hearing Thursday, the city’s three elected officials said a goal is to wean charities off city money.

The 807 Clinic stands to lose about 22 percent of its city funding in the new year, which Waites said is about half the operating budget.

“We might be able to survive this year, but we can’t take another cut,” she said.

Overall, Mayor Laurence Leyens said the city is reducing charitable spending by about 25 percent, but savings will be about $33,800, or 12 percent, after increases in other areas, including $30,000 to fund a proposed retail trade study.

The overall spending plan is $27.2 million and is expected to be approved Sept. 2 by the city board. The proposed cuts are about .001 percent of the total and will save less than the $43,584 cost of the raises the three officials voted for themselves earlier this year.

“I know the city’s very committed to cleaning up and making things look good, but we still have to be concerned with the social issues. The people,” said Jane Geary, marketing director for the United Way of West Central Mississippi.

Although the United Way is not directly funded by the city, many of its agencies, including the 807 Clinic, get large portions of their budgets from the city. Other agencies expected to be cut in the proposed budget include Haven House Family Shelter, the Initiative, We Care and the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation.

North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young, who was part of the administration that started the Southern Cultural Center at the former St. Francis Xavier complex, said the board looked everywhere for places to make cuts in order to bring down the budget from this year’s $30.7 million spending plan.

“There’s only so much the city can do,” Young said. “I’d rather just cut some there than have to cut services.”

Most city departments will see cuts in the spending plan that begins Oct. 1. Officials also say there will be an 11 percent increase in natural gas rates and a 15 percent increase for water in the coming year.

The budget anticipates that city income will continue to grow and have more revenue, but officials said their past budgets have tapped into the city’s $14 million reserve and the plan is for the city to stay within its income for the year.

Waites said the HIV Clinic, started in 1990, will likely have to cut some services including emergency help for medication expenses and community education. The clinic provides medical treatment and social services for about 45 patients with HIV each year including those without insurance and is funded by the city, Warren County and the United Way.

“You can clean up the city and you can make it look good, but that’s not going to make the community a good place,” she said.