WALTHALL - A public hearing on the 2004-05 proposed budget for Webster County will be Friday morning at the Courthouse in Walthall.
The Board of Supervisors will begin the hearing at 10 a.m. in the courtroom, which all citizens may attend. The budget includes these proposed increases:
3.35 percent in ad valorem tax revenue on all classes of property, from $4.59 million in 2003-04 to $4.75 million.
1.05 percent in the certified tax rate, from 92.56 mills to 93.54 mills. The 2003-04 millage represented a 3.16 percent jump.
5.34 percent in the county's expenditure budget, from $5.13 million to $5.4 million.
The supervisors will make a final decision on the proposed tax increase and budget at that meeting or its next one, which will be Tuesday morning. The county's fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
The proposal shows a planned reduction in funding of 62 percent for one line item in a general county departmental budget. The "grants" budget for the Webster County Development Council as proposed by the board is $15,000. The county currently budgets $40,000 annually for the organization. The funding cut is proposed apparently because of budget constraints previously discussed by the supervisors.
Executive Director Steve Anderson, in an e-mailed message to WCDC members last month, stated, "This cut in funding would greatly reduce the improvement of economic development of Webster County. Webster County has made great strides in economic development but there is much more that needs to be accomplished."
Amounts budgeted for the WCDC in 2003-04 were $40,000 each from Webster County and the city of Eupora, $5,000 from the town of Mathiston, $2,500 from the village of Walthall and $1,500 from the village of Mantee.
The city of Eupora's budget as proposed for the upcoming fiscal year would continue the same level of funding for economic development under general government disbursements. Anderson, at an Aug. 26 city budget hearing at City Hall, asked that the city board keep economic development funding the same.
Besides the mayor and city clerk, two aldermen were present at that hearing: Robert Calvin Mays and Hank Flowers. The city budget must be adopted by Sept. 15. Aldermen meet again Tuesday night for their regular September meeting but could wait to adopt the budget at a special meeting.
Eupora aldermen voted in July to support the city's participation in the Mississippi Main Street Program with the WCDC as the designated applicant. The motion stipulated that there will be no additional costs to the city above the $40,000 already being paid annually to the organization.
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