City of Hattiesburg CFO discusses millage | News

HATTIESBURG (WDAM)- The city of Hattiesburg is working with a smaller, yet stable budget, according to its Chief Financial Officer, Connie Everett.

Everett said Monday that the city's initial budget request for 2013 is $93 million, with a general budget of $45 million. She says those are stable numbers for the upcoming fiscal year. But something that may fluctuate is millage.

Everett says the Trustees of the Hattiesburg Public School District may not be asking for an increase in their district maintenance request dollars, which is the same as last year, at just over $16 million, but there is an increase in their debt service.

Everett says, tie that in with the low property assessments of the Hattiesburg School District, and that forces the city to adjust the millage, but by how much is the question.

"We have some initial numbers calculated. I think we do want to talk to the county again, and see if they made any more adjustments to their numbers and just double check ourselves, and make sure we're not over looking anything. We certainly don't want to pass on a tax increase to the tax payers, so we want to be very cautious and very careful about that before we finalize that," said Everett.

Everett says after Monday's city council work session meeting the city should know how much they will adjust the millage.