Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters released the preliminary 2011 Budget for the county on Monday.  The budget shows a decrease of a little over $400,000 from this year to 2011 with most departments of county government seeing smaller budgets for the upcoming year.

The commissioner did increase funding in a couple of areas including the Chattooga County Cooperative Extension Office in the amount of $2,122 for the upcoming year.  Other areas that saw an increase were Economic Development, Animal Control and Rural Fire Protection.

The Commissioner’s Office budget is being cut by over $13,000 and the Sheriff’s Department is seeing a cut of $55,230 in the budget.  Public Works budget remains the same as last year.Winters said that some of the numbers may change as he is still "tweeking" the budget.  There will be a public hearing concerning the budget coming up at a date to be announced.

AM 1180 will talk with the commissioner about the budget in an upcoming Newsmakers Interview.