Fayette County officials are planning to avoid a property tax increase this year by reducing the millage rate to counterbalance any increased home reassessments.

The budget will be discussed at Thursday night’s regular meeting of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners, which convenes at 7 p.m. at the county’s Stonewall government complex in downtown Fayetteville.

The county’s proposed $78.79 million budget for the coming year includes the general fund and all accounts such as water and capital expenditures. That total is $1.12 million less than last year’s budget, and most of that savings is achieved by deleting 22 full-time vacant unfilled staff positions, officials said.

That reduced the county’s operating budget for 2009-2010 by 5.3 percent compared to last year, officials said. The general fund expenditures will be down 4.3 percent, equal to $2.06 million less than the current budget year.

The 2009-2010 budget includes a $4.44 million capital improvement fund that will relocate and build Fire Station 3 in Tyrone and Fire Station 4 in Fayetteville, expand the county library in Fayetteville and complete work on Snead Road, a dust control program and the county’s Atlanta Regional Commission transportation plan.

Another topic on the agenda is a request to rezone four lots in the Ledgewood subdivision off Old Norton Road and Ga. Highway 54 for a medical office. The four lots are next door to each other and each fronts on Hwy. 54; the applicant is Kenneth J. Lazarus of the Southern Crescent Neurological Clinic.

The county’s planning commission recently voted 3-2 to recommend approval of the rezoning from R-40 residential to office-institutional.

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