City Council approves fiscal year 2018 budget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl7fRj9_WDY

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Hattiesburg City Council adopted the fiscal year 2018 budget Thursday afternoon during a special called meeting.

The council approved $125,462,269 for the general fund, special fund reserve capital projects, debt service and water and sewer.

"...while it's never ideal to pay more, if we're going to keep seeing economic growth, we're going to have to set our police and fire departments up to meet the needs brought on by that growth,” said Mayor of Hattiesburg, Toby Barker.

The council agreed to spend $2.3 on infrastructure, which includes general paving for damaged roads.

Barker said $2.3 million will not fix every road but he hopes to increase the budget every year, to fix as many roads as possible within the Hattiesburg public school district neighborhood.

Other budget categories includes:

• $2.9 million for economic development.

• $800,000 set aside for future debut service on new police station and municipal court building.

• $1,000 annual raise increase for all current code enforcement officers as of April 1,2018.

• $3 million increase on property tax levy effective FY 2018