Call it a contrast

in governments.

In downtown

Atlanta, the Fulton County Commission recently passed its $599 million

budget, which was balanced and provides a variety of services for its

residents with no expected tax increase.

But just across

the street at Atlanta City Hall, the number-crunchers are hammering out

proposals to try and erase an $82 million budget deficit left by the previous

administration.

Fulton County

Commissioner Bill Edwards has seen the struggle Atlanta Mayor Shirley

Franklin is going through, and believes he has a partial solution to some

of the money woes.

"I would

love to see all the municipalities and Fulton County get together to implement

a central purchasing policy," he said.

Edwards said

each government purchases items such as fire trucks and police cars. If

all the government agencies joined together, the commissioner believes

everybody could save money.

There has been

some initial discussion about possibly sharing services, but Edwards said

that would take a long time to implement.

A central purchasing

policy can be done a lot quicker and save money this year, he said.