Fayette

County commissioners

will have to cut $376,000 from a proposed $49 million

fiscal year 2000 budget, or else reduce the county's

reserve fund, after granting Sheriff Randall Johnson part

of his budget request that had earlier been cut.

The

Sheriff's Department had originally asked for $8.96

million, a 21 percent increase over its 1999 budget, and

county staff had slashed that to $8.15 million, only a 10

percent increase. Thursday, after hearing that calls for

service already are expected to increase by almost 22

percent this calendar year, commissioners went halfway

and tentatively approved a 15 percent increase in the

department's budget, to $8.52 million.

"We

answered 40,751 calls for service last year, and already

we're at 3,500 a month for this year," said Maj. Ken

Rose, director of field operations for the sheriff's

office. "That's not officer-initiated stuff,"

he told the commissioners during a budget work session

last week.

Although

this year's calls are only slightly above last year's for

the same period, Rose said the second half of the year is

always the busiest. "We easily anticipate a

50,000-call year," he said.

Most of the

increased budget will go to hire and equip more deputies.

The department had requested money to hire 14 more people

- 12 deputies, one investigator and one clerk. In

their initial cuts, county staff had recommended reducing

that number to seven, but commissioners last week

tentatively approved 10.

"We've

only got so much money to go around," said county

administrator Billy Beckett during the budget discussion.

"If I had $300,000 more, I would tell you [the

sheriff] needs $300,000 more," he said.

Commissioners

decided the sheriff's needs take priority. "The

biggest indicator that we have is that the sheriff's

numbers historically and to date indicate low crime, and

we want that to continue," said Commissioner Greg

Dunn.

The

additional $376,000 will have to come from elsewhere in

the budget, they said. "We can't adopt a deficit

budget on June 30, so somebody better find some more

money," said Commissioner Herb Frady.

County

Finance Department figures show a $10.3 million reserve

fund at the end of the next fiscal year, and

commissioners may reduce that reserve in order to pay for

the sheriff's requests. But the county needs at least

$7.3 million in reserve just to deal with normal cash

flow problems, said finance director Emory McHugh.

And there

are more than $8.2 million in capital projects facing the

county in the near future, he said, plus others that

can't even be estimated at this point.

Shortly

after the budget work session, commissioners reduced

reserves even further, approving the un-budgeted purchase

of new computer software for the Sheriff's Department at

a cost of $437,631.

Commissioners

also are facing more requests for expenditures not

recommended by staff, including the city of Peachtree

City's request for $100,000 to help build a football

field and track at Riley Park.

Two more

budget work sessions are scheduled, with plans to adopt a

budget at the commission's June 24 business meeting:

today at 4 p.m. and June 22 at 4 p.m. If needed, the

group will meet again June 24, before its regular meeting

at 7 p.m. Like all commission meetings, the budget work

sessions are open to the public.

The

proposed budget also is available for public review at

the County Administrative Complex.

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