STONE MOUNTAIN, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
As time winds down on the deadline for the DeKalb County Board of Education to finalize $73 million in budget cuts, the chair of the budget subcommittee said there have been major mistakes made in past years during the budgeting process.
"I don't know what happened, but we're going to find out," said Paul Womack at Monday's subcommittee meeting, prior to a possible budget vote Monday night.
He said annual expenses such as electricity, gas, water, fuel, and textbooks have been regularly under-budgeted in years past, and that the difference was made up out of the reserve fund. Now, that reserve fund is depleted, and the board will be forced to make drastic cuts to the Fernbank Science Center, transportation, central office staff and other programs.
"If we don't get to the bottom of what we can cut now, it's going to be more draconian next year," Womack said.
The DeKalb County Board of Education had a meeting at 6 this evening. A vote to approve the proposed $73 million in budget cuts was scheduled, but could also be delayed until up to the end of the month.
CBS Atlanta and CBSAtlanta.com will follow this story through the evening and provide updates as they happen.
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