Better to be proactive than to do too little too late. That's the thinking of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which on Tuesday voted unanimously to cut the Fiscal Year 2010 budget by $8 million to head off the possibility of a having to layoff or furlough workers or raise local taxes.

As part of the cuts the county will continue to eliminate vacant positions, cut non-critical, landscaping-related transportation department operations and most important, implement an early retirement plan for as many as 450 county employees.

About 125 workers are expected to take the voluntary early retirement option.

"The intent is that many of the positions for folks taking this early retirement will not be refilled. Some positions may be refilled with part time, or some positions may be refilled with lower-ranking employees where there's some management changes or organizational changes," Olens told the Marietta Daily Journal last week.

This plan as proposed would give the county a greater than $10 million reduction in personnel costs.

"That's what's really driving this program is to greatly benefit the ability to move forward in fiscal years '11 and '12 once again without a millage increase," Olens said. "Where this really helps is in '11 and '12. If assuming that, if we're lucky, the economy has a slow recovery rather than a second dip, what this really does is give us a significant benefit to present to our residents - a balanced budget in '11 and '12. What this does is give us greater than a $10 million reduction in personnel costs. That's huge, because we expect revenues to be down by at least that much."

The chairman also noted that the county budget was already cut to the bone last year.

"There was no fluff in the budget to begin with," he said. "So if I ordered my department heads to come up with a 5 percent cut now, that would mean layoffs. So the only way we have to accomplish the General Fund reductions we need is via early retirements."

It's a sensible approach that also has the benefit of keeping the county's millage rate unchanged at 9.6 mills - the lowest in the metro area. What the chairman is proposing is fair to the employees, fair to the county and fair to the taxpayers. Let's hope the latest cuts prove sufficient to see the county through these worst of economic times.