Starkville aldermen on Tuesday will consider adding up to $245,000 to its street overlay budget this fiscal year.
Ward 6 Alderman and Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins placed the item on the meeting’s agenda, which would give each alderman $35,000 in additional discretionary funds to spend on street overlay projects in their wards by Sept. 30, 2017.
The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. in the municipal courtroom at City Hall.
“I believe this is urgent and necessitous because there are a lot of street overlay issues in the city that need attention,” Perkins told The Dispatch. “Hopefully, the board will be receptive to this.”
Originally, the city’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget included $280,000 for discretionary street overlay projects, which aldermen divided as $40,000 for each ward.
Both Perkins and Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn said that money didn’t go very far.
For Wynn, it only covered one project — a less than quarter-mile overlay and striping on Old Highway 12 in west Starkville. After that, she said, she only has $4 left of her original appropriation and a ward full of other needs.
“We could always use more money for streets,” she said. “This is a measure I am going to support.”
Mayor Parker Wiseman said he needs more information from aldermen before deciding whether to recommend the expenditure, but he is urging caution.
There is some wiggle room in the budget for moving funds to cover the extra street work. Specifically, Wiseman said aldermen could shift $150,000 budgeted for future tax-increment financing obligations the city will not spend this year. Even if the board approved a new TIF for infrastructure to a new development before the end of the budget year, he said the city would not start paying on those obligations until FY 2018.
Still, depleting a safety-net revenue source less than three months into the budget year is risky, Wiseman added.
“That’s a potential place they could find one-time funding,” he said. “I would be hesitant to move all of it at once, though, because it could make the budget very tight for the rest of the year.”
As far as where the city would find the remaining $95,000 to fill Perkins’ request, Wiseman would not speculate.
Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard, who chairs the city’s budget committee, did not answer calls and messages for comment by press time.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
