By Associated Press
Tuscaloosa AL – The Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office will be able to hire five more deputies five less than requested and all county employees will get a 3 percent raise in a recently adopted budget.
The County Commission approved the fiscal 2008 budget that totals $82 million, including nearly $1 million that was not originally proposed.
That change was due to a $884,000 highway project reimbursement from the Alabama Department of Transportation that arrived after Tuscaloosa County Finance Director Bill Lamb prepared the proposed budget.
The Sheriff's Office is budgeted to receive $9.6 million, more than the $8.6 million it spent in fiscal 2007, but about $561,000 less than Sheriff Ted Sexton had requested.
Sexton's request for 10 additional deputies was a primary reason that the budget for fiscal 2008, which began Oct. 1, was delayed eight weeks.
In September, County Commission Chairman Hardy McCollum had proposed increasing the number of deputies by five, but Commissioner Bobby Miller said he would try to convince other commissioners to add seven deputies, for a total of 99.