Forsyth County's 2012 Budget Approved

Forsyth County commissioners approved a balanced Thursday with one dissenting vote. kept a campaign promise made last year by voting against the budget which failed to restore full benefits for public safety personnel.

As required by state law, the general fund budget is balanced with $92,448,864 in both projected revenue and expenditures and reflects a 4.9 percent increase from 2011.

"My campaign promise was to oppose any budget that didn't restore their benefits and I made that clear to the other commissioners two weeks ago that I planned to vote against this," Levent said.

The first-term commissioner also said inability to live within his budget was partly to blame for commissioners' failure to restore full benefits.

"Most of our department heads were very conservative in their spending," Levent said. "Very few asked for an increase, but every time you turn around Paxton is asking for more money. So, once again, he sought an increase."

The Sheriff's Office 2012 operating budget increased by 35.5 percent and the overall budget by 4.04 percent.

The county's Fire Fund declined by 2.13 percent to $16,912,931.

The Solid Waste Fund increased by 62.99 percent since 2011. Most of the increase was due to an increase in host fees and sale of recycled material and transfer fees that went 25 to 50 cents per bag.

, an enterprise fund that operates on the money it collects from the county's water customers, also proposed an increase of 18.64 percent to $40,951,200.