After

poring over budget figures for fiscal year 2001

in a series of workshops, Fayette County

commissioners may still be looking at a tax

increase of about 1.5 mills this year.

"We

haven't cut very much out of this thing,"

said Commissioner Greg Dunn during Monday's

workshop meeting.

Commissioners

will take one more shot at whittling down the $57

million budget in a workshop at 4:30 p.m. today

with plans to adopt the spending plan during

their regular business meeting at 7 p.m.

tomorrow.

After

cutting two investigators from the Sheriff's

Department's request for eight additional people,

commissioners tentatively approved County Manager

Billy Beckett's recommended budgets for all the

remaining departments Monday.

Still

to be discussed are overall salary increases and

revenue projections, particularly revenue from

fees the county charges for inspections and other

services.

In

addition to a 2.7 percent cost of living increase

and merit pay increases already agreed upon, a

study committee is recommending additional salary

increases based on a survey of comparable

salaries in the surrounding area.

Merit

increases approved earlier are different from

those originally factored into the budget, said

county finance director Emory McHugh. "That

impacts everything," he said, adding that he

is working to come up with new budget numbers

based on the changes.

What

the commissioners decide concerning the study

committee's recommendations also will affect the

bottom line, he said.

The

proposed budget includes departmental requests

for 45 more people. Beckett is recommending 29

and commissioners have approved all of those

except for the two sheriff's investigators. The

county now has about 580 authorized positions.

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