Columbus’ City Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 is not the one city leaders had hoped for

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Columbus’ City Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 is not the one city leaders had hoped for, but it is balanced, and the new administration is already looking to improve the next one.

City leaders had to make last-minute cuts after a 1.5 million dollar error was found in the proposed budget.

That meant new equipment for the crime lab, new radios for the Police Department, new breathing apparatus for firefighters, and pay raises for city employees all had to go on the chopping block, along with some much-needed maintenance on city buildings.

Mayor Keith Gaskin is not happy with the result but says the council avoided a worst-case scenario.

“While it was disappointing, I’m glad we found the mistake when we did. So, it could have been much worse if we had passed the budget not knowing we were going into spending in the way that we had planned the budget, the way we voted could have taken us into a serious deficit, which we didn’t need to do,” said Mayor Keith Gaskin.

Gaskin has not given up on the breathing equipment for the fire department or the police radios.

He says the city is actively looking for grants for those needs and thinks they can have them within the next year.