The Jackson City Council Finance Committee met on May 21, 2026, at 3:30 PM to discuss expenses and budget cuts. The committee reconvened on May 22, 2026, at 10:00 AM. The goal was to balance the budget using $112 million in revenue by cutting $23 million in expenditures. The committee reviewed line-item expenses, identified savings from vacancies, and debated categories such as vehicles, professional services, and overtime.
Okay, it's 3 30, and we're gonna go ahead and call this meeting to order the finance committee meeting, and today we're gonna discuss uh expenses only. Um we've taken care of all the revenues, so everything is good on the revenue side. I disagree that everything's good on the revenue side. I would say everything's bad on the revenue side. But is that you but but we we went through that? Yeah, but I mean it's not is the term good to describe it doesn't matter what you think, it's done. Okay, it's done. That's how we're gonna say it's done. The revenue side is complete or done, okay. It's it's good in terms of what we're trying to accomplish, okay? That's all we can do with it. So today we're gonna spend our time on the expense side, and we may differ on opinions, but the bottom line is we have to balance the budget and come up with a working solution, no matter what we call it or how we defined it, okay? That's our goal to do, and we're gonna respect each other and do it in a manner that works for the city. Okay, so what I've given you in this book is revenue, and you don't need to look at the first pages. We're gonna start on page five, and the reason we're not looking at revenue, revenue has not changed in terms of what we're doing. So, what I've given you is the first 40 pages of the monthly um financial report, and in this report is all the expenses. We said we wanted the expenses spelled out, so all the expenses are spelled out. There are a couple key notes that I need to tell you before we start. First thing is June the 18th, we will have our public hearing meeting for the budget, okay? And that is uh required by law by the statute, okay. Um we will be completed with this process by June the 18th, so we can have it for the public, and then we will vote on the revised budget after that based on a date that we will come up with before June 30th. Everything has to be complete by June 30th. Our goal is to have it done a week before June 30th. Okay, so expenses. What we're looking at is trying to cut our expenses in areas that we can cut and still maintain all the services to the city and reduce the budget by the amount required to get it under um balanced and at the appropriate amount using 112 million. And so the first area, if you look, I gave you my notes, and you can do anything you want. This is not Tina Clay's budget. This is your budget, so work it however you want it. But I thought this may be simple, and if you have a different way of doing it, let's do it. Um what I did, I went through the first 40 pages and I looked at the categories, and you can look at them quickly or slowly, or however you want to look at them today while we're here. But the goal is to see areas that we can reduce. We know every department has salaries. We know there are a number of people in the uh departments, and we know their vacancies. We're gonna figure out how many vacancies and how much money is available with the vacancies. Okay. Yes, sir. So at this point, we're this is still trying trying to finalize the budget for the year that ends this coming September 30. Yes, sir. Okay, so we're not really focused on the budget for next year. That is not our goal at all. On getting to the finish line on September 30, 2026. Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. But this should help us in creating our next budget because it's so close to that time, okay. So in each category, you have the um salaries, okay? And that's one area that we know the administration has said that there's some vacancies, and there's a way to save money there. So um this breakout gives you every department by breakout. So at some point we're gonna have all the vacancies, and you will have an amount of money there, and um finance may have it now as to how much money we have in vacancies that we can start off with. Do you have that amount? 10 million.