County Proposes $1.3 Billion Budget for 2012

Closing more than three-fourths of a $35 million revenue shortfall, Gwinnett County officials Tuesday rolled out a spending plan of roughly $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2012.

The proposal represents a 12.4 percent decrease over the current budget. It includes no pay raises, no new employees, and no planned furloughs.

"In some ways, this is the easiest budget I have dealt with," Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash, also a former county administrator, said at county headquarters in Lawrenceville. "That may sound counter-intuitive (with the county's decreasing tax base). Almost consistenly, there were no requests for additional funding."

The budget total provides for the use of $5.2 million in reserve funds, but Nash said that it is county officials' intent to implement spending cuts during the year that would prevent those funds from being used.

A public hearing on the budget will be held Dec. 13, and adoption by the Board of Commissioners is planned for Jan. 3.

Budget planners included an 8 percent drop in the county tax digest in their figures, a total of $24 million.