# Public Works Faces the Deepest Cut in a Budget the Council Must Pass by Sept. 15

> Mayor Horhn's flat $112.9 million general fund plan trims Public Works by $8 million even as the city folds its parks crews into the department. The council has until Sept. 15 to find a different answer.

*Politics · By Jackson Wire Staff · September 5, 2026*

The department the Jackson City Council ranks second on its list of funding priorities is the one Mayor John Horhn's proposed budget cuts the hardest. Public Works would drop from about $22 million to $14 million next fiscal year, an $8 million reduction, even as it struggles to answer thousands of open service requests with a single engineer on staff, according to WLBT and the Clarion Ledger.

The cut lands at a strange moment. In May the council eliminated the Parks and Recreation Department and moved its grass-cutting and grounds crews under Public Works as a new 'grounds preservation unit,' per the Clarion Ledger. The department is being asked to do more work with roughly a third less money.

The general fund plan itself is $112.9 million, flat against what the city actually spends but about $23 million below the $135.7 million budget adopted last September, WLBT reported. The city is staring at a revenue shortfall that officials have put between $23 million and $36 million.

This is the second straight year of shrinking. General fund revenues have fallen every year since 2023, from $118.1 million to $115.8 million to $112.7 million, with $91.8 million collected through June of the current year, according to figures WLBT published.

Chief Financial Officer Jillian Caldwell told the council the city has been deficit spending for years, with the previous administration spending about $17.4 million more than it collected in 2024 and 2025. She framed the new budget as one that 'right-sizes spending to match what we actually expect to collect.'

Council members are not convinced the revenue side is realistic. Ward Two's Tina Clay noted the budget projects $37.5 million in property tax collections, a figure the city has not reached in any of the last three fiscal years, when it topped out around $36.5 million. Ward Seven's Kevin Parkinson has pushed for conservative projections to avoid discovering a shortfall midway through the year.

At a public hearing on Aug. 27, only two residents showed up, and both told the council not to cut Public Works. Annie Ricks of the Jayne Avenue Neighborhood Association said she and her neighbors are aging homeowners who can no longer keep up their own properties. Sheka Epps of the Zoo Area Progressive Partnership described North Alabama Street as overgrown to the point that 'you can't even drive down the street.'

The council could not set the millage rate that day for lack of a quorum; only President Vernon Hartley, Parkinson and Ward One's Ashby Foote were present. A special meeting was later scheduled for Sept. 3 to establish the ad valorem tax levy for the city and the school district and to adopt the budget, according to the agenda posted on jacksonms.gov.

Hartley has said the city cannot afford the Public Works cut while roads and streets look the way they do. 'Running over someone because there's vegetation blocking the stop sign is not an option,' he said at an earlier budget session, per WLBT.

The contrast with a year ago is sharp. Last September the council passed a $337 million budget with no tax hike and added money for public works, public safety and employee raises, the Clarion Ledger reported. This September the same body is weighing whether to let the deepest single cut stand.

Taxes are not expected to rise this cycle, WLBT reported. The statutory deadline to adopt the budget is Sept. 15, and the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Parkinson has said the council could hold more budget meetings next week, which leaves roughly ten days to decide whether Public Works absorbs the cut or the city finds the money somewhere else.

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