City holds work session to prepare next fiscal year’s budget

JACKSON, Tenn. — Budget work continues for the City of Jackson as an extensive work session was held Wednesday morning.

Because it was only a work session, the City Council did not vote on anything in particular. However, this was all about giving them a chance to ask different department heads questions about the budgets they have proposed.

“I’ve asked the council members, ‘hey, look through it. Questions, comments, concerns, let me know so we can work to get those addressed,'” said Mayor Scott Conger. “The questions they have brought up have been great. I have had several council members say that it is a much better process this year. When you are transitioning a core financial system with an organization this large, it takes time.”

Mayor Conger told us that the City has already seen great benefits with this new system during this process.

“I think what is great about this system is they’re not just a bunch of spreadsheets, which is what they’ve been in the past,” Mayor Conger said. “So we can go in and, as amendments are being made, notes can be made, you can look at individual items, the justifications are in there, there’s real time updates.”

This year’s budget process seems to be going quicker than last year. However, there are still some things that need to be done before the council has a budget to approve or deny.

“So we’re going to go through this exercise today and tomorrow. Any adjustments that they want to see. There’s going to be some adjustments to our capital. Then we’ll look at where that balances out. Then out it in the final document for the council to vote on,” said Conger.

Mayor Conger said the plan is to have that vote in the June City Council meeting.

There will be another budget work session Thursday, May 15, at 9 a.m. in City Hall.

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