Jackson Council Hands Planetarium to Museum of Art in $250,000 Deal, With No Budget Line Identified
JACKSON — The Jackson City Council voted 5-1 on Tuesday to approve a joint operations agreement handing management of the city’s planetarium to the Mississippi Museum of Art.
The agreement runs three years and is renewable. It requires the city to pay $250,000 at signing and $130,000 a year after that.
City officials told the council that no specific line in the city budget had yet been identified to cover the payments.
Councilman Kevin Parkinson defended the arrangement. “It’s actually going to be a cost savings for us as opposed to us running it ourselves,” he told colleagues.
One council member voted against the up-front payment specifically.
The vote came at the same meeting at which the council rejected, 3-4, a proposed amendment to the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget that Parkinson had argued state law required, citing revenue collections running below the $135 million budgeted.
The facility has been run by the city’s Department of Human and Cultural Services. The council approved a $7.5 million bond in September 2022 for renovations to the planetarium and the adjoining arts center, and more than $5 million in private donations had been raised toward the project by February 2024.