Title 19, Counties and County Officers

The board of supervisors of any county may set aside, appropriate and expend moneys from the general fund for the erection, remodeling, enlarging, or repairing of the courthouse, jail or other county buildings.

The board of supervisors of any county bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and having an assessed valuation of less than Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000.00), is hereby authorized and empowered, in its discretion, to set aside, appropriate and expend moneys from the general fund for …

[Until July 1, 2027, this section shall read as follows:] (a) The board of supervisors of any county may, in its discretion, set aside, appropriate and expend moneys from the general fund to be used for funding of the operation of the youth court division. Such funds shall be exp…

The boards of supervisors of the various counties in the state are hereby authorized, in their discretion, to set aside, appropriate and expend moneys from the general fund for treatment of the indigent sick, for the promotion of public health of the county, and for the support a…

The board of supervisors of any county of the state may, in its discretion, set aside, appropriate and expend moneys from the general fund for the purpose of securing funds with which to cooperate with the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce in eradicating fire ants, as auth…

This chapter shall be cited as the “County Budget Law.”

(1) The budget as finally determined, in addition to setting out separately each general item of expenditure for which appropriations are to be made and the fund out of which the same is to be paid, shall set out the total amount to be expended from each fund, the anticipated wor…

The clerk of the board of supervisors of each county shall open and keep a regular set of books, as prescribed by the state auditor, as the head of the state department of audit, or by the director thereof appointed by the state auditor. Such set of books, known as the “uniform s…

In order for the county’s financial records to fairly represent the financial condition of the county as of the date of the external audit, the clerk of the board of supervisors or, where applicable, the county administrator shall record into the county’s accounting system the ye…

The board of supervisors of each and every county of the state shall at all times keep within the sum named in its said budget and within the annual revenue, always seeking to lessen expenditure instead of exceeding revenue and budget estimates. The amount appropriated and author…

No expenditures shall be made, or liabilities incurred, or warrants issued, in excess of the budget estimates as finally determined by the board of supervisors, or as thereafter revised under the provisions of this chapter. The board of supervisors shall not approve any claim, an…

(1) When it shall appear to the board of supervisors that collection of anticipated revenues from taxation and/or other sources for any fund or funds of any county will be more than the amounts estimated, or when it appears that such revenues will be less than estimated, the boar…

Upon the happening of any emergency caused by fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot or insurrection, or caused by an inherent defect due to defective construction, or when the immediate preservation of order or of public health is necessary, or when the restoration of a condition of…

At the regular meeting in each month, the clerk shall submit to the board of supervisors of the county a report showing the expenditures and liabilities incurred against each separate budget item during the preceding calendar month, and like information for the whole of the fisca…

All appropriations of funds made under the provisions of a budget for a fiscal year shall lapse at the end of such year, and all books shall close September 30. All disbursements and appropriations made on and after October 1, other than appropriations for incompleted improvement…

No board of supervisors of any county shall expend from, or contract an obligation against, the budget estimates for road and bridge construction, maintenance and equipment, made and published by it during the last year of the term of office of such board, between the first day o…

The word “clerk,” as used in this chapter, shall mean the chancery clerk acting in his official capacity as the clerk of the board of supervisors and as the county auditor.

Each county of the State of Mississippi shall operate on a fiscal year basis, beginning October first and ending September thirtieth of each year.

[With regard to any county which is exempt from the provisions of Section 19-2-3, this section shall read as follows:] (1) The board of supervisors of each county of the State of Mississippi shall, at its August meeting of each year, prepare a complete budget of revenues, expense…

The budget of expenses, revenues and working cash balance shall be prepared in such form as may be necessary, upon forms to be prescribed by the State Auditor, as the head of the State Department of Audit, or by the director thereof appointed by the State Auditor. Such budget of …

The term stationery, as applied to purchases for the counties of the state, includes everything properly so called, and the boards of supervisors shall provide for everything in contracts for stationery as herein defined that can be conveniently so purchased.

The boards of supervisors, if satisfied that the bids offered are materially more expensive to the taxpayers of the state than prevails in other adjoining states, may require such bids to be lowered and if the resident bidders refuse to lower such bids, the boards of supervisors …

The board of supervisors may reject any and all bids and readvertise for new ones and no bid shall be considered unless accompanied by a certified check of a solvent bank, for at least Twenty five Dollars ($25.00) or said sum in cash, the same to be forfeited to the county in the…

A board of supervisors shall not empower or authorize any one or more members of such board, or other person, to let or make contract for the building or erection of public works of any description, or for working public roads, in vacation or during a recess of said board, except…

All bids and contracts for stationery, blank books, office supplies and other things must be specific in stating the kinds or brands and qualities of all articles, as far as practicable; the weight per ream and material of all paper; the price per quire and the weight per ream of…

If it appears to the satisfaction of the board of supervisors, on any opening of bids, that there has been a combination between the bidders or that some of them are connected with a trust or combine, or that the bidding is purposely unfair, in raising the prices of some articles…

The board of supervisors shall require the successful bidder to execute a bond with sufficient surety or sureties to be approved by it in a sufficient penalty conditioned for the faithful performance of the contract and the prompt delivery, free of all charges for freight and oth…

All accounts and bills for the purchase of stationery, records, blank books, office supplies, and other things herein authorized by the board of supervisors shall be approved and allowed as other claims against said counties are required to be, and warrants issued for the payment…

Members of the board of supervisors and county officers failing to comply with the requirements of Sections 19-13-101 through 19-13-119 shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than Ten Dollars ($10.00) or imprisonmen…

[For contracts executed prior to July 1, 1984, the following provisions apply:] The board of supervisors shall never make a payment to any contractor for building or repairing a bridge, or for doing any work on a public road, public building or other public work, where the contra…

[With regard to any county that is exempt from the provisions of Section 19-2-3, this section shall read as follows:] A board of supervisors purchasing tractors, trucks and other machinery or equipment for constructing, reconstructing and maintaining the public roads shall not pa…

The authority is hereby granted to boards of supervisors to purchase tractors, trucks and other machinery or equipment for use of the county or any road district of any county in constructing, reconstructing and maintaining public roads from any agency of the federal government a…

The board of supervisors of any county which owns any tractor, truck, or other road machinery or equipment, or any district of which owns any such machinery or equipment, may at any time have the same repaired, or purchase necessary repair parts therefor, where it is necessary to…

A county may, by resolution spread upon its minutes, enter into a road maintenance agreement with a taxpayer that is eligible for the reduced severance tax levied pursuant to Section 27-25-503(1)(c) or 27-25-703(1)(b).

Any person having a just claim against any county shall first file the same on or before the last day of the month for which such claim may be payable, with the clerk of the board of supervisors for presentation to the board for allowance, which said claim shall be properly dated…

All claims filed for allowance by a board of supervisors which are based upon a sale or sales of any personal property shall be sufficiently itemized to show in detail the kind, quantity and price of the articles sold. Claims covering the sale of lumber shall be itemized so as to…

The clerk of the board of supervisors shall be supplied with, and shall keep as a record of his office, a book to be styled “The Docket of Claims,” in which he shall enter monthly all demands, claims and accounts against the county presented to him during the month. The docket sh…

When claims against the county shall be presented to the clerk thereof, said clerk shall mark “filed” on each such claim, as of the date of presentation of same, and shall audit, number, and docket the same consecutively under the heading of each fund in the book of accounts requ…

(1) At each regular meeting of the board, the claims docket shall be called and all claims then on file, not previously rejected or allowed, shall be passed upon in the order in which they are entered upon the docket. All claims found by the board to be illegal, and which cannot …

It shall be unlawful for the board of supervisors to allow a greater sum for any account, claim, or demand against the county than the amount actually due thereon, dollar for dollar, according to the legal or ordinary cash compensation for such services rendered, or for salaries …

If any person shall claim and receive from the board of supervisors of a county any fee or compensation not authorized by law, or if a member of such board shall knowingly vote for the payment of any such unauthorized claim, or any appropriation not authorized by law, he shall be…

Any member of the board of supervisors may have his vote, on any question before the board, recorded on the minutes of the board at the time of such vote, and a member who voted against any unauthorized appropriation of money shall not be liable therefor.

The board of supervisors of each county shall provide printed warrants, with proper blanks, bound in book form, with a sufficient blank margin, to be used in drawing money out of the county treasury, and such warrants, so printed and bound, as may be needed to draw money out of t…

Warrants shall be drawn by the clerk, under his seal of office, in favor of the claimants, on all demands, claims and accounts allowed by the board, in the order of their allowance, against the several funds in the county depository from which such allowed claims must be paid. Th…

All county warrants shall be registered in a book to be provided by the board for that purpose, and the fact of registration shall be noted on the back of the warrant. The county depository shall pay warrants in the order of their registration, unless there be sufficient funds in…

The county depository shall not receive a jury or witness certificate nor a school warrant from any clerk, sheriff, or any county officer in settlement unless the officer make oath that he received the same in payment of taxes due the county, or that he paid the holder the full s…