Crenshaw Budget

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Crenshaw mayor: needs, no ‘wants’ in new town budget

By Billy Davis

Crenshaw town government will move into a new fiscal year with a “very balanced” and “conservative” budget, town leaders were told last week.

Town government is set to adopt a $500,710 budget, according to figures provided by financial consultant Lygunnah Bean. The 2011 fiscal year begins October 1.

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Administration costs account for most of the budget, at 45 percent, followed by the police department budget at 32 percent, according to figures reviewed at the town meeting.

Those figures were expected to change slightly due to a clerical error that put some police officers’ salaries under administration costs. 

“That is not my pay,” noted town clerk Renee Ward, when aldermen were reviewing the administration budget. Approximately $50,000 belongs in the police budget, she later explained.

Bean’s figures, forecasting revenue and expenditures for the year, show an expected net income of $9,469 when the fiscal year ends in 2011.

The new budget is approximately $20,000 above the current year. Bean said a portion of that increase comes from a current jump in police fines, which is expected to continue in the new fiscal year.

The increase in police fines, which has been rising for some time, comes from beefed up enforcement, town leaders have said.

The larger budget also includes funds set aside for a new patrol car, if town government can win a grant that requires matching funds, said Mayor Oscar Barlow.

The budget does not include raises for town employees or elected officials, said the mayor.

Town government is ineligible for a lot of grant monies until it completes several years of audits, a process that is well under way.

The fines add revenue to cash-strapped town government, though residents’ water bills are the biggest revenue maker.

Bean, as he’s done in the past, urged town officials to closely watch the water bill revenue.

The 2011 budget will be adopted September 15, the state-mandated deadline, by Barlow and the Board of Aldermen.

Adoption of the budget will follow a public hearing.

“It’s a tight budget and we’ll just have to watch our money,” Barlow told The Panolian. 

“We’ll get what we need and not everything we want,” he said.