Recently, for the third and last time this year, a month had a fifth Monday. The Jacksonville City Council also had its fifth Monday Council Forum. These forums give the council extra free time that they would not normally have. This extra time is used to plan and learn things necessary to lead the city.

Prior meetings have focused on capital improvements and planning projects. This time the forum focused on the budgetary process.

"Because it is budget time and because the economy been going bad we wanted to look at the budget. Three of the people are fairly new and we wanted to get ahead," said Councilman George Areno, who was glad the council could review where the budget stands before any decisions are made.

The council invited Dr. Charlie Notar as a special guest speaker to help sort out the basics of budgeting. Notar was previously on the Jacksonville City Council and teaches at Jacksonville State University.

"To me, a budget is nothing more than a planning and a tracking device. We are planning on what we are going to be doing, and then we track how much we spent as we go along," said Notar.

Notar then pointed out that it is necessary to know what kind of money is being tracked. According to Notar, there is continuous money, from revenue streams such as taxes and fees, and one-time money, which comes from one-time incomes like the sale of the hospital by the city.

"You never spend one-time money on a continuous requirement," said Notar.

The use of money was then broken down. Earmarked money is designated to go to a project and cannot be used for funding other things. Notar used the money the city gets from gas and oil tax as an example. That money must be used for road improvements.

Assigned money is different from earmarked money. This is money that comes in from ,any different kinds of way, and the city can dictate where it should go. Notar used the interest from bonds as an example of assigned money.

"Some people would say that's earmarked, but it's not really earmarked because the council has the option of voting that has a change, so it's not truly a change," said Notar. If the council did want to make a change, it would take a majority plus one vote in order to do so.

The council then heard examples of the different forms a budget can take. Notar supported two 12-month budgets rather than a 24-month budget. Notar said this allows for better long-term planning and accountability. With proper budgeting, the council can focus on finishing current projects while planning the start of new projects.

The council then went over the current budget in different areas.

Councilman Areno told the council, "I think that this information, especially where there is income to a part of your committee, that looking at this and the past years will help you ask a committee chairperson to help the council has a whole to make recommendations."

Rita Spruiell, the finance director for Jacksonville, told the council, "As a city employee and a citizen, I appreciate the mayor and council looking into the budget because that's the only way to a good decision the best you can. It's just like at home, when you spend too much money you don't have, pretty soon you don't have a place to stay."