Reserves tapped for budget

The Clarion-Ledger, 9/28/7

Jackson council members returned to City Hall Thursday – a day after Mayor Frank Melton’s profanity-laced tirade – and quietly balanced Jackson’s 2007 fiscal budget, erasing a $3 million shortfall with money from the reserve fund.

In a 3-2 vote, council members amended an ordinance that dropped the amount of reserves required from 7.5 percent of the general fund to 4 percent.

The vote ended a series of meetings this week in which the council had debated whether the reserve fund should be used.

On Wednesday, Melton became frustrated at the budget process and lashed out at Ward 6 Councilman Marshand Crisler, calling him a “g–damn idiot.”