At its meeting on October 20, the Macon-Bibb County Commission approved increasing this year’s budget by about $3.5 million in order to remove the furloughs originally planned for January – June 2021. This was done since revenue has been higher and expenses lower during the first part of the year.

“We were able to do this in large part because of your departments keeping expenses low and by working together to overcome challenges presented from having vacant positions,” County Manager Dr. Keith Moffett told employees in a letter and email on Wednesday. “Our sales tax revenue also did not have the severe decrease that was projected for the state.”

The furloughs were originally planned because the budget had to be developed during the shutdown of the local and state economy in response to COVID-19, and then approved while the economy was slowly reopening. The Commission and the budget team, at that time, could not completely predict the full impact to future revenue, so plans were put in place to be able to respond to a severe reduction.

“Thankfully, we did not have as severe of a drop, and our departments did what they could to hold back on expenses and make do with fewer people the past few months,” adds Dr. Moffett. “I was glad we could bring the Commission a plan to remove the furloughs, and even more glad the Commission supported our departments this way.”