MEIGS — The City of Meigs is not going anywhere without a budget in place, a CPA told council members Monday night. 

The Meigs City Council took action to maneuver around the financial roadblock by unanimously approving proposed budgets for 2016 and 2017.  

The approval of the proposed 2016 budget would allow the city to undergo an upcoming audit. 

“You can’t do your audit without a budget,” Roy Long of Long & Company CPAs said. 

“You’ve got to have a budget to be able to function,” he added. 

The last official budget for the city was approved in 2015. 

Budget figures from 2015 were used to compile the proposed 2016 and 2017 budgets. 

Halfway through 2017 without an official budget for the year, Long suggested the council “sit down and realistically look at what’s costing the city money.” 

Long also suggested the council meet with the city’s department heads in August for the 2018 budget, in order to advertise the proposed milage rate in October. 

“If you don’t know what kind of money you’re going to spend, you can’t set the millage rate,” he said. 

For the 2016 budget, the city’s revenues totaled to $563,276, an increase from the proposed $550,600. In property taxes, the city collected $189,122. The budget proposed to bring in $138,000 in property taxes. 

The actual expenditures for 2016 were $563,813 and resulted in a $538 deficit. 

Reporter Jordan Barela can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1826.