Jackson City Council meets to plan for future budgets

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson City Council is strategizing for future budgets.

The city council met Thursday for a budget strategy session with representatives from the Municipal Technical Advisory Service.

Together they reviewed the budget process to get the council more involved and informed.

“We’re not just really doing it year to year, and so we’re not just saying what we’re going do next year, the following year. So we can look at kind of long-term goals and visions of how we can start planning through the budget cycle with those long-term goals in mind,” said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.

The council discussed goals for this next fiscal year’s budget, and also visions for the next 10 years.

“What Jackson is going to look like in the next five to 10 years because if we don’t start preparing now for it, then it’s going to hit us and we’re not going to be prepared. We’re going to be trying to be reactive. And so how do we start planning for that along with the immediate needs and initiative that we have today?” Conger said.

The second round of the American Rescue Plan Act funds will be budgeted into next fiscal year’s budget.

Conger hopes it will be a “normal” budget year.

“There’s been so many unknowns that have gone on the past two and a half years. We’ve had to really react to those external factors. And so I think, you know, being able to have a plan and stick with it, not having to do that absolute pivot that we’ve had to do. Just, you know, throw everything out the window and just survive is really what we did in 2020,” Conger said.

The next Jackson City Council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 1 at 9 a.m. in City Hall.

You can find more local news through the WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News app.