Politics & Government

Gwinnett Allows Citizens In On Budget Planning

County begins work on 2012 budget Tuesday.

Gwinnett Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash will allow five county residents to be part of the county's budget review team as it begins planning for the fiscal year 2012 budget Tuesday.

The citizens reviewing will be Herman Pennamon, Southern Company’s Community Relations Manager; David Crews, CFO of Viewpoint Health; Lois Love, a Gwinnett County retiree who was the county’s capital budget manager; Laurie McClain, a CPA with McClain & Company, PC; and Norwood Davis, CFO of 12Stone Church.

County officials will hold planning sessions on Tuesday, Sept. 6, Wednesday, Sept. 7, and Monday, Sept. 12 at the Justice and Administration center in Lawrenceville.

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The budget is scheduled to be presented to commissioners on Nov. 15. At that time, it also will be presented to the public and the media, and a public hearing will be held in December.

Many of Gwinnett's 805,000 residents live in unincorporated areas of the county, and thus depend exclusively on county services such as fire, police, water and road maintenance. And the county is the exclusive provider of such services as the library.

Find out what's happening in Suwaneewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

During the planning process, each county department and agency will present their proposed spending needs to Nash and the review committee. This does not include the Gwinnett school system, which sets its own budget.

The county adopted a $1.54 billion budget for FY 2011; it included an $18 million deficit that was eliminated with spending cuts.

The budget review sessions will be videotaped and will be made available to the public on TVgwinnett, its cable TV channel, and on the county website: www.gwinnettcounty.com.

Nash said in a media release, “Despite decreased tax revenues resulting from the decline in property values, we were able to balance the 2011 budget due to hard work and sacrifices across the entire county organization. The coming year promises to bring similar challenges. The budget review team will have a tough job recommending spending priorities, but I have every confidence we will be successful.”


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