Coweta County commissioners gave unanimous approval to the 2009-2010 budget submitted by District Attorney Pete Skandalakis, who was acknowledged for holding the line on his upcoming expenditures.

Skandalakis said his overall 2009-2010 budget of $1,890,583 for the five-county judicial circuit would be same as this year. Specific to Coweta, Skandalakis said the county’s portion of the new budget would be $529,363. That figure represents a decrease of $2,765 over the current year. Coweta County’s contrubution represents approximately 28 percent of the District Attorney’s budget, Skandalakis said.

County administrator Theron Gay applauded the District Attorney’s office for holding the line on the budget, adding that the county would also save approximately $41,000 through the month of June. The comment was in reference to a March 27 letter informing the county that the state Board of Community Health had revised employer contributions for employees’ health costs. Those costs had been reduced from 22.65 percent to 1.925 percent in February and will be at zero-percent from March through the end of June. Commissioners were told that the reason for the reduction rested in the state’s move to access its health insurance reserves in order to try to balance its budget.

“While many agencies would ask that these ($41,000) surplus funds be converted to another line item in their budgets, because of the economic downturn facing our counties, we are not making that request,” Victim Assistance Director Linda Tipton said in the letter. “Instead, we are notifying you of the surplus so those funds can be used elsewhere in the county’s budget.”

A brief discussion was followed by a unanimous vote to approve the budget.

The Coweta Judicial Circuit includes Coweta, Carroll, Meriwether, Troup and Heard counties.

login to post comments