HERNANDO, Miss. (WMC) – The City of Hernando is facing a $2.6 million deficit in its utility fund due to accounting mistakes, Mayor Chip Johnson said during this week’s board of aldermen meeting.
Mayor Johnson took responsibility for the shortfall and said unpaid bills that he didn’t discover until after the budget was set contributed to the problem. He also cited a disconnect between rising waste disposal costs and the money collected to pay for them.
“I messed up part of that budget. I had some inputs that just weren’t right. So, on the garbage, it was not brought to my attention that we had a recurring 16% increase in garbage each year. So we underbudgeted garbage immensely,” Johnson said…