James Dutton

Hoping for a good turn out of citizens for the Spalding County budget meetings this morning. We are scheduled to meet all day every day this week, Monday through Thursday.

I've attached the schedule for the week. As you can see, each department has to come in and justify every dime they want to spend each year, every year. We do zero based budgeting, so it doesn't matter what a department spent last year or asks for this year, they only get what the commissioners think the bare minimum is for them to accomplish their set tasks for the year.

I'm also happy to say that nearly all departments turn money back over to the county at the end of the year (meaning that they were able to save, cut, or reduce even more than anyone thought they could that year, like if a truck or piece of equipment lasted longer than we planned, etc.). Sometimes they do go over, which requires a vote from the board to amend the budget, but that only happens when there is an emergency (storm damage, or generators/HVACs breaking long before it was expected, etc.).

While we do our absolute best to have as low of a budget as we can, so that we can cut taxes to the absolute lowest levels we can, we don't want our level of county services to be cut either.

Please come and join us and help us make this budget the best that's ever been!

This is the public page for all public communications. Look here for an upcoming announcement about this year's elections and ongoing issues I'm working on here in Spalding County.

So excited and honored to sit as a guest at the Songs of Hope performance of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square here at Morehouse College.

I've literally never heard anything so harmonious in all my life. Honestly, I didn't know the human voice could be that harmonious without auto tuning and editing effective. Listening and watching this live is simply unbelievable.

I'm so glad my friends Rita Johnson and Laura Plauché Johnson could join my wife Kristen Dutton and sister Lisa Danielle Dutton here to see this!