Just days before considering nearly $1.28 million in cuts from next year's budget, Columbia County officials spent at least $2,600 in taxpayer money on a two-day conference at a Lake Oconee resort.

The money paid for meeting rooms, coffee and soft drink services, and food during meetings held Wednesday and Thursday at the Ritz Carlton in Greensboro, Ga., according to figures from the county administrator's office.

Those figures do not include the cost of lodging or the rental of audiovisual equipment.

The county received a discounted rate of $225 a night to stay at the Ritz Carlton. An assistant in the administrator's office did not know Monday which of the 25 officials attending the meeting Wednesday or the 16 attending Thursday spent the night or paid for rooms themselves.

"We're pretty ... frugal with the taxpayers' money, and if people have a problem with that trip, then I think they've got a problem," Commissioner Tommy Mercer said.

Out-of-town trips provide a distraction-free environment for officials to discuss county business, Mr. Mercer said.

"I don't think we need to justify it, but if we did have to justify it, that's how we'd do it," he said.

The meetings included reports from division directors, updates from consultants, committee appointments and budget discussions, said county Commission Chairman Ron Cross.

The trip had been planned for more than a year, and the Ritz Carlton had already been paid a deposit, Mr. Cross said. But the trip was cut from three days to 1 1/2, and staff did not stay overnight.

Mr. Cross said he paid for his own room Tuesday evening after an informal meeting with consultants but that he charged the county for his Wednesday lodging.

Though Mr. Mercer finds value in such meetings, Mr. Cross said he thinks the commission likely will not continue the practice.

"We'd have gotten out of it this year if we'd been able to, but we'd already signed a contract before we knew we'd be losing so much money from the state," he said.

Prompted by a $1.45 million shortfall in state funding, commissioners will discuss trimming the 2008-09 county budget during a regular meeting tonight at the Evans Government Center.

Proposed cuts include nearly $360,000 from the sheriff's budget, about $190,000 from the detention center, about $71,000 from commissioners, $100,000 from information technology and more than $100,000 from management services.

The commission meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be held in the auditorium of the government complex at 630 Ronald Reagan Drive.

Reach Donnie Fetter at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.