The cost of government in Augusta will rise next year to $127.3 million if city commissioners approve Administrator Fred Russell's proposed 2009 general-fund budget as presented last week.

The increase over this year's budget for administration, courts, law enforcement and various government offices will cost the owner of a $100,000 house $29 more in taxes in 2009 and continue a trend in Augusta government.

Since 2003, the general fund budget has increased 28.1 percent, or $27.9 million, according to city records. The inflation rate from January 2003 to August of this year has increased 20.6 percent, according to InflationData.Com's inflation calculator. That percentage would be expected to increase when the 2009 budget is implemented.

Mr. Russell said city government has experienced the same increased costs for gasoline, electricity, health care and food that everyone has been facing.

"Included in all of these increases is an increase for power, gas, health care, food for inmates at the jails and salaries," he said. "We've given an approximately 13 percent increase in salaries over the past five years. And that doesn't include the additional $2,000 raise for the cops."

Each public safety officer received 13 percent increases and $2,000 raises, Mr. Russell said.

"So if the sheriff's got 500 cops, that's a million dollars there, plus fire personnel and everybody else that got that extra $2,000 increase, plus the 13 percent," he said. "That's affected general government, the courts, public safety, everybody."

The city also has added several offices it didn't have in 2003, he said, including an Equal Opportunity Office and a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise office.

"That's a quarter of a million dollars there," he said.

The city also has created a legal department with a $979,510 budget for next year, in addition to $300,000 for outside counsel. The department, which replaced the Shepard Plunkett Hamilton & Boudreaux firm this year, has four attorneys with pending requests for two more.

State-mandated requirements to provide indigent defense to Superior Court and State Court cases have played a large part in increased judicial costs, Mr. Russell said.

This year's budget for indigent-defense is $2.7 million, up from $1.7 million in 2003, he said.

"Juvenile Court was budgeted at $375,477 in 2003. Today it's $643,450," Mr. Russell said. "The State Court judge was $615,350, and the solicitor was $1.2 million then. So now it's $937,000, plus $1.6 million. A lot of that is salaries and an additional judge in State Court. And that's pretty much where it is across the board. It doesn't seem to be out of whack to me."

Overall, the number of full-time, part-time, hourly and temporary employees has not increased much, if at all, Mr. Russell said. The best available records indicate there were 2,783 in 2003 and 2,813 this year.

Sheriff Ronnie Strength said he has 34 fewer deputies working in road patrol today than he had in 1997 even though the budget for that division next year is $18 million, up from $12.6 million in 2003.

"We have not increased personnel here in 10 years," he said. "So it can't be that."

He said the sheriff's office is only $49 million of the $55 million law enforcement budget.

Mr. Russell said he doesn't see the explosive growth in city government that he has heard some complain about.

"If you take the price of a gallon of gas in 2003 and the price of a gallon of gas today, those are the kinds of real-world comparisons -- a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk in 2003 and today," Mr. Russell said. "That's the reality of what you're dealing with here. The runaway spending that some people say is there, I don't see it. Even with the growth, I don't see it because you figure about 80 percent of our budget is salary and benefits."

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylvia.cooper@augustachronicle.com.