Mayor shares thoughts on city of Jackson budget decisions

JACKSON, Tenn. — In a follow up, the mayor of Jackson explains in further detail why they are proposing to dip into the city’s fund balance for this year’s budget increase.

Mayor Jerry Gist says they are proposing to expand the city’s budget by using around $2.6 million out of the fund balance.

Right now, the mayor says there is around $18 million in the account and says he can’t justify raising taxes with that much in savings.

He says he is comfortable with having around $11 million to $12 million in the fund balance for emergencies but that they can’t keep dipping into the account.

“We can’t go into fund balance every year,” Mayor Gist said. “It’s simply not sustainable, so we are going to have to work hard this next year in either looking at growth in our city, which we are growing — there are a lot of demands on the city budget — or look at other sources of revenue.”

The City Council passed the budget Wednesday on the first reading. They will have the second reading at their next scheduled meeting in June.