City council members speak out on proposed 2024-25 FY budget

July 1, 2024

Ryan Hodges,

JACKSON, Tenn. — We bring you continuing coverage regarding the City of Jackson’s proposed budget.

Thursday afternoon’s budget committee meeting ended with a surprise decision to recommend to the council to approve the proposed budget without any changes. They would also recommend the city takes on some debt in order to fund various things, like roads and police vehicles.

We were able to reach out via email to each city council member Monday morning to ask the following questions:

What is your current stance on the budget situation?
What are your main priorities that you want the budget to accomplish? Does the current proposed budget accomplish these things?
What do you hope gets done during the next discussion regarding the budget with the city council?

Council Member Julie Holt responded quickly. She says she is against cutting the proposed salary increases and delaying the approval of the budget. However, she has some concerns regarding taking additional debt to help fund some items. Holt says they need to look for alternative ways to make this budget work.

Some of her main priorities include adequately compensating police and first responders, supporting workers of the City of Jackson, and making sure the roads are in good condition. She says taking out debt could fund these priorities now, however doing it this way may bring “long-term financial implications that must be carefully considered.”

Finally, what she hopes to get out of the next discussion between the council members is to focus on finding a solution that benefits everyone in the city of Jackson.

We also spoke to Council Member Candace Busby regarding the current situation of the budget. She shared her thoughts on the committee recommending the same budget without any changes.

“The simple fact that we’re not able to look at the budget currently and make some cuts in different areas is problematic,” said Busby.

Busby says she has been contacted by many of her constituents regarding the upkeep of roads. This is something that is important to her and the people in her district.

“They’ve been promised roads were going to be fixed, and they haven’t, and they’re just fed up and frustrated, quite honestly,” said Busby.

The city council is meeting Tuesday, July 2, at 9 a.m. at city hall. However, after speaking with some of the council members, discussion of the budget is not on the agenda. There will need to be a special called meeting for them to discuss it.

Council Member Richard Donnell also responded to the questions saying he is disappointed that the current capital budget does not include street paving and that he wants that resolved in their next discussion.