JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jackson city leaders are grappling with a major budget shortfall as officials work to get a clear picture of the city’s finances.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the deficit has grown significant, raising concerns about how to balance the budget moving forward. City leaders said they’re reviewing revenue and spending data, with more clarity expected in the coming days.
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“We’re in a $23 million shortfall. I can tell you that we have discovered that two years ago, the city had a $7 million shortfall. And in this most previous fiscal year, there was a $13 million shortfall. And our financial consultant informed us about almost as soon as we got him on that, he thought we had a problem with this year’s budget. And that has been blown out. There is about $23 million. Now, one of the ways that we can deal with this is to look at those positions that are currently unfilled and not fill those. We’re also looking at ways the city can bring in revenue,” said Horhn.
“Next week, you will get all the numbers based on what we’ve collected for these six months and what we have spent. Then we will take those numbers and do some simple math figure out where we are once we do this simple math based on freezing and no numbers changing, etc., expenses, seeing what’s on there. We will be able to tell you how much money we really have and what we don’t have,” said Councilwoman Tina Clay, Ward 2…