Jackson Progress-Argus

Photo by Hugh Osteen

The Butts County school board, and the Board of Commissioners, each set their budgets for 2012 on Monday during separate meetings.

The Board of Education went first July 25, formally adopting its budget of $30.8 million during a noon meeting. The school board also voted to set its millage rate at the 20-mill maximum once again.

Commissioners voted to formally adopt the county budget during a meeting at 1 p.m., though the vote on the $19.6 million spending plan was not unanimous. The Board of Commissioners has been fractured over some of the plan's proposals, including restoring 11 days of pay county workers gave up under the fiscal 2011 budget. Some members of the board have said they felt the county could not afford the cost of restoring the cut, which saved the county about $300,000 last year.

Commissioners J. Keith Douglas, Mike Patterson, Robert L. Henderson Sr., and Roger D. McDaniel voted to adopt the budget Monday, though McDaniel had been among the two nays on the vote taken last month, when the board gave the budget preliminary approval.

McDaniel, who is also chairman of the board, voted Monday against setting the millage rate at the proposed rate of 16.913 mills, half a mill lower than the 2011 rate. The vote to set the county's millage went down as a 3-2 split with McDaniel and Commissioner G.S. "Gator" Hodges opposed.

The same pair also voted against setting the county's overall millage rate, which incorporates the school board's 20 mills and a quarter mill for the state, at 37.163 mills.

While he declined to discuss his votes in detail after the meeting, McDaniel said the county had to move forward with the budget and set the plan in place.

"Although the budget and the millage rate is not what I would've liked to have seen, the majority prevailed and we've got to move forward," he said. "Hopefully next year we can give more back to the taxpayers ... I'd like to find ways to cut more spending."