Vicksburg and Warren County officials are on holiday today, but attention to their 2009-10 budgets will be ratcheted up a notch as numbers-crunching begins in earnest this week.

Though fuel prices moderated and are barely half of last summer’s record highs, they were the basis for a decision by supervisors to increase tax rates for this year. Otherwise, effects of the national recession are evident throughout the county’s budget, minimizing most pay raise requests and trimming donations to charities.

Public hearings

CITY OF VICKSBURG

• Public hearing on 2009-10 budget Aug. 27. A formal vote is expected Sept. 8.

WARREN COUNTY

• Informal meetings on the 2009-10 budget are planned later this month, with a formal vote expected Sept. 8. The public hearing is expected to be just before the vote on the same day.

The new month begins with city department heads still uncertain if they’ll have jobs beyond Tuesday, when many personnel decisions are anticipated at the first board of mayor and aldermen meeting with Mayor Paul Winfield. 

His plan is to fill many high-profile positions such as police chief, fire chief and city attorney with new employees, but Winfield has identified the 2009-10 budget as his immediate priority, along with seeing the still-unfinished 2007 and 2008 audits completed.

Regardless in the change in the mayor’s office, city department heads must have their budgets to Accounting Director Doug Whittington by Friday. Strategic Planner Paul Rogers — sole planner of the city’s budgets and finances since 2001 — announced his retirement two weeks ago, but will be working on a part-time basis to assist Whittington with his first budget and the audits.

Budget discussions among the mayor and aldermen and department heads will begin in two weeks, and a public hearing on the proposed budget is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 27. Warren County supervisors are expected to discuss their spending plan in depth later this month.  Formal votes on each are expected Sept. 8 with new tax rates to go into effect Oct. 1, when the city and county start their budget years.

Vicksburg Warren School District Trustees approved a slimmer, $78.6 million budget in March for fiscal year 2009-10, built on anticipated revenues of about $74.8 million. The school district operates on a July 1 through June 30 fiscal year, as does the state. The current spending plan is about $1.7 million less than the 2008-09 budget, and anticipates $2.4 million less in revenue — largely due to anticipated cuts in state allocations. The school request for funding, which must be levied by supervisors, is not expected to change.

The city’s revenue comes largely from the collection of sales taxes, property taxes and taxes on casino revenues. The current $31.7 million spending plan includes $7.2 million from sales taxes, $6.6 million from property taxes and $6.2 million from gaming taxes. Sixty-three percent of all revenue goes into the general fund, while smaller portions are used to pay down the city’s bond debt, as well as support other funds such as police and fire retirement, water, gas, grants and the Vicksburg Municipal Airport.

On the county level, revenue comes from property taxes on homes and vehicles, court fines, gaming taxes and various reimbursements from the state to support about $15.7 million in spending, not including grants.

Schools rely on a mixture of about 30 percent from property taxes, 60 percent from state funds and 10 percent from federal sources.

Salaries of the roughly 600 city employees accounts for approximately 63 percent of the city’s entire expenditures and $20 million of the current budget. In recent administrations, payroll has composed about 52 percent of the county’s budget.

Winfield said he’s reviewed the city’s budget, but is not prepared to make any comments on any funding changes he foresees.

“When you’re an outsider and you’re just looking in at the numbers, you don’t see all of the specifics and you’re somewhat at a disadvantage,” he said. “Until we sit down with all the department heads to hear about their goals and needs — and see what’s being spent and how it’s being spent — I’d just be making guesses.”

Contrasting with budget processes in a city government that could be flush with new faces in addition to Winfield, the county budget is in the hands of John Smith, an 18-year employee of the city before his appointment as county administrator in 2005. Though supervisors cast official votes on the budget, it is largely the work of the administrator to process departmental requests and fit them into an overall spending plan.

Two of four budgets prepared under Smith’s watch have resulted in property tax rate hikes, once to upgrade emergency dispatch technology and in 2008 to help shore up reserves against fuel prices that reached nearly $4 a gallon.

This year, even with a slight increase in land values this year after virtually no growth last year, no supervisor or department is recommending further tinkering with county tax rates.

“What we have to do is maintain what we have (on department funding),” Smith said this week as requests rolled in.

The Sheriff’s Department and the Road Department — both highly affected by fuel prices — are requesting either level or slightly less support compared to this year. Included is $184,000 for gasoline, less than the $195,000 allocated in this year’s budget.

Raises of about 2 percent are pending for jail personnel and positions from undersheriff to the shortest-tenured deputies. Hikes of 6 and 7 percent are requested for the chief financial officer and inventory clerk positions, respectively. Overall, the department’s $3,461,832 general fund request for next year is about $29,000 less than what supervisors approved this year. Supply needs include five new cruisers and 25 digital cameras for patrol cars. Also, $105,000 is requested to cover overtime, which Sheriff Martin Pace said only occurs if hours exceed 80 in a two-week period due. Year-over-year additional spending in last year’s budget totaled more than $195,000 for fuel and overtime.

“My guys would be dancing in the streets if they got overtime after 40 hours,” Pace said.

Road Department funding should remain adequate “for the next several years” dependent on fuel prices, Road Manager Richard Winans said in his request, one that includes one more mower at $85,000 and asks to consider a 5 percent cost-of-living raise for workers of county departments. Materials costs for asphalt, gravel and concrete continue to rise, Winans said, which may offset the drop in fuel costs. Ferry service will continue at Kings Point, but a dry dock inspection from the Coast Guard in 2010-11 could run $30,000 and saving should begin now, Winans said.

Contributions to nonprofit agencies, enabled through the state Legislature, will drop about 3 percent this year after several agency donations were cut 10 percent. But, health insurance coverage could be most pressing for county coffers this year. More than $800,000 in claims for major illnesses have been filed against the fund, paid out of gaming tax revenues.

“I’ll probably up it to $400,000 (for the coming year),” Smith said. “If I do any more, it’ll take away from road paving.”

City departments that could see funding changes include recreation, landscaping, building and inspections and the Vicksburg Municipal Airport.

Winfield has pledged to expand recreation in the city — either publicly or privately — and has also criticized former mayor Laurence Leyens for spending too much on beautification efforts. The recreation department accounts for $760,000 in the current budget, or 2.4 percent of all general fund spending, while the landscaping department was allocated slightly more at $841,000. 

Winfield has also called for more streamlined and fair code enforcement procedures in the city. It is not clear if that will require more or less spending on inspections, which are currently earmarked about $993,000.

Following a resurgence of interest in the Vicksburg Municipal Airport by Leyens in late 2008, approximately $410,000 was allotted to airport operations and development. While Winfield toured the facility on U.S. 61 South for the first time last week and stated he intends to support the airport, he did not provide specifics as to how his support should be reflected in the budget.

The city, along with Warren County, Tallulah and Madison Parish, also supports the Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport in Mound, La., with approximately $30,000 annually. Officials with the regional airport have yet to submit a budget to Warren County, which withheld approval of a renewed operating agreement for VTR after Winfield’s election. Former mayor Laurence Leyens had advocated a shorter term and tighter controls on airplane fuel prices, while county supervisors prefer a long-term deal and allowing the market to dictate fuel prices. 

“I think it’s going to call for some reprioritizaiton,” said Winfield of the budget, which Whittington and Rogers are to have drafted for final review by Aug. 13. “But I also think there’s some things we can accomplish with our human capital that won’t necessarily cost us a lot of money. I’m going to do a lot to encourage volunteering and community service, especially among our young people and retirees.”