Effingham County commissioners are preparing to adopt their fiscal year 2011 budget, a spending plan that represents a 5.2 percent cut in spending from a year ago.

Under the draft budget, the county is also expecting to take in 6 percent less revenue than a year ago. Most of the lost revenue comes from a reduction in local option sales tax revenues, said county finance director Joanna Wright, as a result of the economic downturn.

Commissioners are working on a draft budget of $28,226,495, a decrease of more than $1.7 million from the fiscal year 2010 budget. The county budget had grown from $20.4 million in FY04 to $30.7 million in FY09. Effingham’s population has grown from just under 40,000 in 2000 to an estimated 53,000 in 2009.

“We’re still seeing an increase in growth,” said County Administrator David Crawley, adding the county is still the 48th fastest-growing county in the nation. “To me, that is a significant number.

“Our current budget anticipates we will have growth in the long term and we will continue to invest in the quality of life for our citizens. We continue to invest in our employees to provide the necessary services and we will continue to invest in our infrastructure.”

The county is not planning for pay raises or merit increases for its employees and also intends to freeze its current employment level, adding positions only when there are openings. But also are not planning on layoffs and furloughs.

“There aren’t any other personnel reductions we can make without impacting the current level of service,” Crawley said.

Ruth Lee asked the commissioners to spare some of the service agencies from the budget ax and acknowledged that further cuts would be difficult to enact.

“It would appear if there was any change going to be done to reduce the budget, it’s going to come out of the personnel area,” she said. “And that’s never a pleasant subject.

Property taxes will make up about 50 percent of the county’s revenues, and LOST proceeds are projected to make up about 20 percent. Wright said sales tax revenues, which had lagged for an extended period, have picked up the last few months.

“We don’t know if that will hold or not,” she said.

With the proposed millage rate of 8.558, the county is expecting to take in $14.9 million. At 8.53 mills, the county took in $15.1 million in ad valorem taxes last year.

“We are showing no property tax increase at this point,” Wright said.

She also said the county has worked to make sure its has adequate fund balance — commissioners will use about $88,000 in fund balance for the FY11 budget.

“Over the past four years, the county has had a plan to stabilize revenues and to guard against any economic fluctuations that take place,” Wright said.

Commissioners also asked each department to reduce its budget by 10 percent, a move that has met with criticism because of cuts to certain departments, particularly the library.

“We worked with the health department and Gateway for a 10 percent cut. The reason being is we did not want to increase taxes,” Crawley said. “We have reduced taxes the past several years and we wanted to further reduce those numbers. With the decrease in our digest, we didn’t have much choice.”

Crawley said Gateway, which delivers behavioral and mental health services, is looking for land so they can build a new facility.

“We’re trying to create a situation that is beneficial to them and to the county,” he said.

Lee prevailed upon the commissioners to spare Department 51, which includes such things as the health department, from the budget axe.

“It’s been a practice of the commission to cut that every year and pretty soon, it’s going to be out of existence,” she said.

For some agencies, such as the Rape Crisis Center and Victim Witness, the commissioners began with 10 percent cuts and are adding 30 percent cuts each year.

“There are a number of things in there important to the quality of life,” Lee said of the Department 51 agencies and whom they serve. “These are people who require services and you are continually cutting that budget. Public health, mental health and the library need some reconsideration. These are items I don’t believe our community can survive as a good community. I urge you to take a look at those numbers again and see if something can’t be done about them.”

Commissioners are expected to approve their FY11 budget at their June 15 meeting.