NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WTVA) -- As sequestration looms, many counties and cities are preparing for the cuts coming to federal programs and agencies.
Officials in one local city said they are as prepared for the cuts as they can be.
"We kind of run on a skeleton crew here, and we do that so we can keep taxes down. It would hurt to be honest with you. I guess we'd just have to pick up the slack," said New Albany Mayor Tim Kent.
Kent went on to say that the city not only operates as minimally as possible but already has felt a tightening of federal funding.
"We've got a couple of projects that we thought we were going to get started, but they've been put on hold. To be honest with you, they were for economic development and to create jobs. That kind of concerns me there because when they get away from helping us create jobs, it makes me nervous to be quite honest," said Kent.
He added such cuts don't just hurt the municipality.
"State or federal, when they cut their funding to a city like New Albany, even in the school system, it falls back on the local people, and that's not good," said Kent.
The mayor then went on to explain what the city would have to do if it reached a dire point financially.
"But if we had to cut, it'd run us short pretty much in every department, and we'd probably have to just cut across the board. That would be the fairest way. But it would definitely run us short," said Kent.
The mayor added that the city has slowly moved away from relying on federal funding by more than 50 percent, saying city officials prepared for this possible situation.
