Coweta residents may get an early Christmas present as county officials start evaluating next year's budget.

During Tuesday's meeting of the Coweta County Board of Commissioners, county finance director Ricky Smoot said the 1999 budget will rise by about 3.8 percent, but no tax increase will be needed to fund the increase.

The $25.6 million balanced budget includes a 5 percent cost-of-living raise for all county employees, along with the state mandated cost-of-living adjustment for constitutional officers, such as the sheriff and clerk of court.

Smoot recommended the county transfer $250,000 from county's fund balance of $18.2 million to help fund next year's capital improvements.

The county has experienced explosive growth in the last decade, and Smoot said the county government is starting to feel the squeeze. During this year's budget talks, Smoot said department heads requested 42 new positions at a total cost of $1.5 million. If the county decided to fund all the requests, Smoot said taxes would have to be raised by one mill. Instead, he recommended the county fund overtime pay for different departments and add just a fraction of the personnel requests.

The biggest request for additional personnel came from the sheriff's department. Sheriff Mike Yeager asked for 15 additional officer, but Smoot recommended funding only three. If the additional 12 were funded, the budget would be out of balance by $450,000 and require a .4 mills tax increase.