BY THE NUMBERS* $8.9 million: Approximate Dade County budget* $1.5 million: Sheriff’s department budget* $1.1 million: Jail budget* 4.4 percent: Projected sheriff’s budget decrease Source: Patrick Cannon
By Mike Chambers
Correspondent
TRENTON, Ga. — Expect Dade County Sheriff Patrick Cannon to be at budget hearings that are scheduled this week.
The 17-year law enforcement veteran is not happy. He’s been told his department’s budget might shrink by 4.4 percent for the coming fiscal year. That’s after several years of no increases in his $1.5 million departmental budget, he said. The county jail receives about $1.1 million a year, he said.
“I’ve lost at least three men over the past month. They go to Walker County, Chattanooga, even TVA,” he told Dade County commissioners last week.
He said his department has “cut the fat, we have cut the meat, now we’re getting into bones … and the bones are the employees.”
County Executive Ted Rumley is sympathetic, but he said the whole of county government may have to “gnaw at the bone.”
“People can’t afford to have a tax increase this year,” Mr. Rumley said. “We’ve got people who can’t afford their tax payments, they can’t afford to buy groceries. It may sound old-fashioned … but it’s our job to guard over their money they pay and spend it wisely.”
Though Sheriff Cannon praised local state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, for his support, he blamed state lawmakers for putting tax pressure on small counties.
He said Georgia “doesn’t need another fishing hole or horse barn,” referring to funding for a $9 million project near Gov. Sonny Perdue’s hometown of Perry, Ga.
Mike Chambers is based in Walker County. Contact him at chambers@tvn.net.