The Shelby County Commission has agreed to let Sheriff Chris Curry plea his case for as many as 15 new deputies as commissioners work to hammer out a budget for fiscal year 2007.

The County Commission, laying out the details for a $129.9 million spending plan during a series of work sessions, is expected to hear from Curry sometime before the next scheduled commission meeting on Aug. 28.

Commissioners already reached an informal agreement to increase the Sheriff&8217;s share of the general fund budget to $12.6 million &8212; up from $11 million this fiscal year &8212;

to support six new deputies for forming a traffic control unit.

Those deputies would be assigned primarily to traffic related duties and wreck investigations, officials said.

The new deputies will come at a cost of about $104,000 each in the first year, and $63,357 annually thereafter.

Curry, who requested a total of 15 new deputies including the six-member traffic unit, did not receive any additional deputies in this year&8217;s budget.

The Sheriff&8217;s Department and the proposed $6.1 million jail budget are supported by the $52.6 million general fund budget.

More than $11 million dollars is planned for highway department expenditures and $46 million is projected for enterprise fund capital projects, the largest source of spending outside the general fund