Stanley Smotherman (file photo) [Click to enlarge]

Budget "A" covers what the county's sanitation department will need, while Budget "B" contained a five percent cut. The request to submit two different budgets came from the finance committee last month, and applies to all county agencies.

The first budget projects $1,065,500 in revenues and $1,137,232 of expenses, a shortfall of $71,732, while the budget with the five percent cut estimates revenue of $940,000 and $1,020,232 in costs, a $80,232 shortfall.

The biggest increase for solid waste was diesel fuel, estimated to cost $104,500 for fiscal year 2008-09. Stanley Smotherman, who runs the county sanitation department, said that his estimate was "maybe too light" judging from the recent hike in gas costs.

In 2006-07, the cost of fuel was $62,328 and the estimated cost for this fiscal year is $94,815, a jump of nearly 60 percent over the past two years.

Budget "A" includes $110,000 for a new roll-off truck for the department to replace a 1992 Mack truck with over 500,000 miles on it. Smotherman said the vehicle was "living on borrowed time."

An additional $5,000 was put into the Budget "A" capital outlay line item for work on two dump trucks that are deteriorating.

But Budget "B" has those two items removed and also contains a cut of $45,000 from "government contributions," meaning money from the state and county.

County mayor Eugene Ray said, "We don't know what the governor is going to do" about the state's deteriorating budget.