# Jackson's Flat Budget Assumes $37.5 Million in Property Tax It Hasn't Collected in Three Years

> Mayor Horhn's $112.9 million general fund proposal holds spending flat, but two revenue lines drew sharp questions from the council's finance committee on Monday.

*General News · By Jackson Wire Staff · August 11, 2026*

The city's general fund has shrunk every year since 2023, and the mayor's new budget asks the council to trust one number that keeps not showing up. Mayor John Horhn proposed a $112.9 million general fund budget for fiscal 2026-27 on Monday, flat against what the city is actually spending this year but about $23 million below the budget adopted last September, according to WLBT's coverage of the Finance Committee hearing.

The proposal leans on a property tax projection of $37.5 million. Ward Two Councilwoman Tina Clay pointed out that the city has not collected more than $36.5 million in property tax in fiscal years 2023, 2024, or 2025, and that this year looks like it will come in lower still.

Budget Manager Brandon Jackson told the committee the figure comes from Hinds County, which collects the tax on the city's behalf. He cautioned that it is only a proposed number and that the finalized figure will not arrive until the end of August, according to WLBT.

Clay's question is the same one the council has been circling for months. In July, four of seven members voted down an order to formally amend the current-year budget in line with state law, unconvinced the deficit the administration describes is real, Mississippi Today reported. The new proposal forces the question again: can the city budget against a revenue line it has missed for three straight years?

The revenue trajectory is the backdrop. General fund collections ran $118.1 million in 2023, $115.8 million in 2024, and $112.7 million in 2025, and stood at $91.8 million through June 30 of this year, per figures WLBT published from the city.

A second projection drew the same scrutiny. The budget expects $218,000 in delinquent personal tax revenue, but the city had collected $124,674 through June 30 and only $72,689 in all of 2025. Finance Chair Kevin Parkinson suggested the number be revised down, saying the council should not make its own job harder.

Chief Financial Officer Jillian Caldwell defended the overall shape of the plan, calling it a right-sizing of spending to match expected collections while core recurring revenue like property tax stays essentially flat, according to WLBT.

The other pressure point is health insurance. The city expects to spend about $20.3 million on employee and dependent health coverage this fiscal year, up from $19.1 million in fiscal 2025. Caldwell said medical and prescription claims make up 91 to 93 percent of the cost, and that the city's share of the match has risen to 83 percent from 77 percent last year.

Horhn framed the insurance burden as one of the budget's biggest structural problems. Jackson is one of the only employers in the market that pays 100 percent of healthcare for employees and 75 to 80 percent for dependents, he told the committee, and he floated hiring a benefits consultant to work through it.

The administration also conceded the city has been spending beyond its means for years. Caldwell said the previous administration spent about $17.4 million more than it collected in 2024 and 2025, and Chief Administrative Officer Pieter Teeuwissen pointed to police and fire pay raises funded from limited rather than recurring money, plus a canceled $30,000 furniture purchase, as examples of the old pattern.

More than half of the $112.9 million general fund goes to police and fire, and Horhn said public safety remains the top priority, with grant requests already in the works. Public Works, he said, is a work in progress, with the department's director, Lorenzo Anderson, still its only engineer.

The council has until the end of August to decide whether the property tax number is real. If it is not, the flat budget the mayor calls balanced may be balanced against a projection the city has not met since before the last two administrations.

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