MOULTRIE, Ga. — A proposed Colquitt County budget would add nine employees to the payroll, allow for a 4.5 percent raise for employees and still come in at less expenditures than the previous year.

The spending plan proposed by Colquitt County Administrator Chas Cannon also would be the first budget not to dip into the county’s rainy day funds since the Great Recession.

Much of the difference can be chalked up to the penny transportation sales tax passed by county voters in 2017.

For the 2019-2020 budget year that begins July 1, the transportation special purpose local option sales tax (TSPLOST) will provide nearly one-third as much money as the county spent on road maintenance in the current budget year, which came from the county’s general fund.

“Roads & Bridges (Department) is going from $4.4 million to $3 million in spending from the general fund account,” Cannon said. “That’s a $1.4 million shift from property tax funds to the sales tax.”

Overall, the current budget called for spending $22.62 million, compared to $22.3 million for the proposed 2018-2019 plan.

That figure includes an increase of $176,996 on salaries paid from the general fund, with another $58,657 in salary increases coming from other funds.

The raises would apply to all departments with the exception of the sheriff’s office. Law enforcement salaries were addressed during the budget discussions last year.

Commissioner Al Whittington, a former Colquitt County sheriff, said officials should keep an eye on officers’ salaries so that conditions do not reach the point they were at when the raises were approved.

Prior to that, Sheriff Rod Howell had told commissioners, the agency was paying to send officers to the police academy and having them leave a short time later for better-paying jobs elsewhere.

Of the nine new positions funded in the proposed budget — eight full time and one part time — three would be in Roads & Bridges. Those employees would be hired only if the county is approved for a state grant that would pay for paving projects.

If the county receives the grant, it plans on using its personnel to do road preparation work and contract only for paving. The thinking is it will save enough money to allow for paving more miles of county roads.

The three new hires would earn about $33,000 each in the budget proposal.

Another two positions would be for sheriff’s officers who would serve as school resource officers for the school system’s elementary schools. Currently there are four SROs assigned to the high school and two each at the middle and junior high schools.

The county’s portion would be $46,613, with the school system funding an equal amount.

The school system also is considering purchasing the two patrol cars for the officers, Cannon said.

The hire of a security chief at Colquitt County Correctional Institution is expected actually to be a money-saving move, he said.

Overtime last year accounted for $60,000 in spending, and the $42,120 for the new officer is planned to eliminate much or all of that overtime.