Approved Jackson budget includes pay raises for JFD and JPD, infrastructure improvements

The City of Jackson's budget has been adopted for fiscal year 2023-2024.

In a meeting Thursday morning, the Jackson City Council unanimously voted to adopt the city's $421 million budget after weeks of discussions and arguments at budget hearings. It was the first time in "decades" that the entire council voted in favor of the budget, according to Ward 6 Councilman and Council President Aaron Banks.

The budget is a slightly lower than last year’s because the city is no longer receiving American Rescue Plan funding. Among the notable cuts were road improvement and the mayor's budget.

"There's a lot of quality of life issues that have been addressed, and I think it's going to benefit the public tremendously," Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley said after the vote. "I think we have a lot of hope here."

Throughout the budget hearings, council members were able to "trim the fat" and successfully found funds to support such issues as keeping open the Jackson Zoo, higher security in the city's parks, improvements for the city's infrastructure woes and pay raises for the police and fire departments and municipal judges. The council also found a way to pay $2 million for the city's higher insurance premiums after discovering their previous insurance policy with Liberty Mutual wasn't renewed.

In a blow to the mayor's office, the council cut Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba's budget by 15%. His budget has been cut each year, but he said he was committed to making it work.

Council members were also able to set the budget without raising property taxes for residents. The mayor's office originally proposed an increase of property taxes to try to bring the city more revenue, but that was voted down. From the start, the council was all in agreement that raising taxes was not an option.

Banks started off the meeting and confirmed with the city's finance department that there would be money to support pay raises for the Jackson Fire Department. In August, firefighters had been pressing council members for a pay increase by attending meetings and calling out of work in protest. The finance department told the council they had successfully found nearly $3 million to fund the pay raises for district chiefs, fire captains, fire lieutenants and firefighters Class 1 and 2. The only members of the fire department who won't be seeing a raise are the fire chief and his command staff.

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Council members then confirmed they were also able to find funds for pay raises for the officers in the Jackson Police Department as well. JPD's raises are set to take effect on Oct. 1. There is also $350,000 set aside for the hiring of five park rangers to patrol the city's parks and $75,000 to install surveillance cameras.

But Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes said more money needs to go to JPD.

"I hope we can find any extra money that we have. All extra money should go to the police to increase our police force," Stokes said. "We got to increase the police force to make sure the citizens are safe. I think that's the overall goal."

Banks told Stokes that the council had budgeted for 270 positions in the police department. That amount of positions will most likely be filled by the end of the fiscal year, Banks said, and it also gives the city an opportunity to apply for federal grant funding to bring more money to the department.

There were 240 police officers on staff as of last week, and Police Chief Joseph Wade has previously said he was confident he could get that number up to 250 by the end of September.

Lumumba agreed with Stokes about increasing the police force, but also defended Wade, who was confirmed as chief last week, and his efforts in trying to recruit more officers. In the past few weeks, Wade has brought back 13 former officers to the police department, finished a recruiting class and is in the process of starting another, Lumumba said.

"I have been having discussions with the chief; we've been setting targets about bringing officers back. He's met each one of those benchmarks," the mayor said. "Unfortunately, we can't tell you precisely that we'll have 100 more officers at the end of the year, but I can tell you he (the chief) has put forth the most aggressive effort to date and we will continue to report the progress as it goes."

Stokes told the mayor "that sounds good," but stayed firm on his stance that "any and every scrap of money that we can move toward police" should be the goal.

Lumumba also further explained the city's plan to apply for more grant funding for the department.

"You weren't able to get (previous) grants because you had funded positions that just were not met. That is considered supplanting, when you bring in money and you already have positions available. If you eliminate those positions for cost-cutting reasons because you have those challenges then it is no longer supplanting and then you can then have access to those federal grants and use that money for a period of three years in order to add additional officers," Lumumba said.

Lumumba again stated he has full confidence in Wade's ability to get the police department's staffing to where it needs to be and the city will be moving forward with his vision.

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Speaking after the meeting, Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote said while the setting the budget is always a difficult challenge, he was "pretty pleased" with how the hearings went this year.

"It's a challenge every year to do the budget because there are a lot more needs than there are resources to meet those needs. So it's a challenge to try to do it in a way where you don't have to raise taxes for citizens," Foote said.

Foote said he was happy the council was able to give pay raises to the fire department and the police, but said he was disappointed that the council had to dip into the fund that was meant to improve the city's roads to achieve those raises. Now that the budget has been adopted, the council needs to focus on improving the city's infrastructure such as roads, potholes and bridges, he said.

The council plans to use $10 million acquired from the city's internet sales tax to address infrastructure, Foote said.

Lumumba also held a press conference after the meeting where he thanked the council and the city's finance department for their hard work during the budget hearings.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson City Council votes unanimously to adopt $421 million city budget