Cusseta–Chattahoochee faces roughly $740,000 budget gap as clerk presses for part-time hire

Cusseta–Chattahoochee County officials said the county faces a significant budget shortfall as they moved through multi-session public hearings and work sessions in April. County Manager Thomas Weaver told the board the proposed FY2024 budget began from “about a $740,000” deficit and that ambulance revenues have helped — roughly $130,000 since the service started — but are not sufficient to close the gap.

At regular and follow-up public hearings, the board approved a bundle of reserve-to-operating transfers totaling $294,725 to cover immediate needs. Resolutions approved on April 1 reallocated funds for property tax reimbursement ($6,000), the coroner ($30,000), legal expenses ($150,000), EMS salaries ($275,000), and boarding of prisoners ($200,000); staff presented a summary sheet showing the combined amendment total at $294,725.

The budget conversations extended across three scheduled public hearings and a work session. At the April 14 hearing, Superior Court Clerk Tami Wade urged the commissioners for an additional part-time staffer and software funding, telling the board she lacked coverage on court days and could not ‘‘wait a year’’ for potential revenue changes tied to state legislation and sales-tax prospects. Wade said she historically had three staff in the clerk’s office and that staffing reductions were already affecting operations.

Chairman Charles Coffey acknowledged the clerk’s staffing strain but emphasized competing demands across county offices and the board’s duty to balance limited resources. Coffey told the clerk the county could either raise taxes or pick cuts and said he would consider symbolic sacrifices to highlight trade-offs: according to the record, he offered to forgo part of his salary to reduce pressure on the budget if other constitutional officers made comparable concessions.

Commissioners and staff discussed other choices to close the shortfall. Weaver said some capital items requested by departments could be covered by SPLOST revenue and that the Tax Commissioner’s requested software was considered a necessary expense tied to state reporting. The manager also recommended a modest trash-rate increase ($2 per month, raising residential service to about $22) to help address rising solid-waste expenses.

Elected officials signaled the difficulty of recurring shortfalls: with repeated deficits in recent budgets, commissioners said they may have to consider a millage-rate change if additional revenue sources do not materialize. Board members noted HB581 could affect future revenue but that, if approved by voters, any benefit would likely not reach the county for about a year.

What happens next: The board voted to adopt the specified reserve transfers on April 1 and continued budget-line review in work-session discussions on April 28. Commissioners asked staff to produce a revised budget book showing proposed cuts and to bring recommended alternatives — including any proposed mileage-rate changes — to a subsequent meeting for formal action.

Quotes and attributions in this article are drawn from the public hearing and work-session record for April 1–28, 2025. The budget hearings closed without a final adopted millage rate; follow-up meetings were scheduled to reconcile outstanding requests and proposed cuts.