New Jackson City Council discusses budget in July meeting

JACKSON, Tenn. — Tuesday marked the first meeting for the four newly sworn members of the Jackson City Council.

The four new members, Gary Pickens, Paul Taylor, Marda Wallace and Russ McKelvey took the office with the returning councilmen.

“I’m excited. We’ve got a really great group of people,” said Wallace, of District 7.

“It’s a little bit of a surreal feeling, but at the same time, I’m really excited,” said McKelvey, of District 8. “I love Jackson, and I’m thankful to have this opportunity to help and serve.”

They were faced with the city’s most pressing topic during their first meeting: the city budget.

“Basically, we are short the funds to run the city, so we need to come up with approximately $2 million or so,” Wallace said.

Mayor Scott Conger announced plans to form a budget committee to look into the city’s finances, and freshman City Councilman Paul Taylor may become the chair of that committee.

“Now the question at the top of everyone’s mind is, ‘what is the capital budget for this year?’ The other part is obviously the revenue streams,” Taylor said. “So we’ll be looking at those as well, seeing if there are ways to increase those, to look at ways to be efficient and effective with what we already have.”

Although the council does not want to raise taxes, that is still an option if needed.

“I don’t feel comfortable asking anyone to raise taxes or fees without having a great justification for that,” Taylor said.

But they feel the new budget committee will help put the city back on track.

“They’re going to work really well for the city of Jackson to try to get our budget under control and make sure we are able to provide services, but do that at an economical fashion and not get the city deep in debt,” said Gary Pickens, councilman for District 1.

Taylor said he plans to have each city department head create detailed budgets so the budget committee has a greater grasp on their job.