Senoia's budget

for 2003 zipped through City Council approval Monday night.

The City Council

approved a $1.17 million General Fund budget for 2003 at Monday's meeting.

During last Monday's public hearing on the budget, city officials announced

the 2003 general fund budget would be slightly less than last year's $1.26

million.

Last year,

the City Council adopted the 2001 budget for 2002, since there was such

a massive turnover on the council and there was little time to analyze

the figures.

Now, with a

year under its belt, the council has cut nearly $90,000 from the budget,

but will still be able to give employees a 5 percent cost of living raise

during the year.

City administrator

Murray McAfee praised the work of the city's staff in preparing budget

and said the city's departments looked for many areas to cut to try and

make the 2003 budget as austere as possible.

"I'm not

sure this economy is going to turn around, so this is a conservative budget,"

McAfee said.