NATCHEZ – Adams County’s budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year is far from finalized, but County Administrator Stephanie Washington presented a draft budget to the county board of supervisors at a special meeting Friday morning.

The proposed budget currently calls for revenues of $17,734,594 and expenses of $17,548,683. However, this does not include the budgets of the Highway Department and the Sheriff’s Office. Due to their size, these will be discussed separately.

“This is an absolute minimum budget with no increases,” Washington said.

The county’s current budget ends on September 30th and the budget for the new fiscal year begins on October 1st.

“We are trying to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and implement best public service practices. We have imposed a hiring freeze and this budget does not currently provide for any salary increases,” Washington said.

The proposed budget for the new fiscal year is still being processed, she said.

“I’m going to go through this again to see if I can reduce it even further. My goal is to make sure we have funds to not only pay our expenses but also keep some for emergencies. That’s something the auditors have suggested to us,” Washington said.

She also plans to meet with county department heads and assist with employee scheduling to reduce the county’s overtime expenses.

“I would like to say that the board itself has decided not to give itself a raise to which it is entitled in order to ensure that county employees can keep their jobs,” Washington said.

The budget for the current fiscal year is very tight, she said.

“We have more tax closings and tax dollars coming in. I’ve been emailing department heads since I took office in January to hold them accountable to their budgets. We’ve worked to not replace employees who leave,” Washington said. “It’s going to be very close (whether the county finishes the current fiscal year in the black). I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

“I want to stress that I’ve worked really hard not to raise taxes and to implement everything I know to not raise taxes. I’m going to get the auditors to look at the budget before it’s finalized, and I’ve worked closely with the district attorney (Scott Slover) — just used all of the resources and all of my network to get the best budget possible,” she said.