Wake County officials said Monday that the county is facing a growing budget shortfall, forcing the county to make more department cuts than it planned to.

Manager David Cooke told commissioners during their work session that the county is now facing at least a $23 million shortfall, up from the projected $17 million shortfall last month.

Cooke said the larger budget gap is based on new figures showing the county will be receiving less in sales tax revenue.

Cooke said the budget gap is forcing the county to implement more cuts from the proposals submitted last month by all county departments.

Each department had submitted proposals for cutting 4 percent from this year's budget.

Cooke outlined what the county should move ahead with actually cutting.

He said despite the budget gap, he's not recommending cutting some services that would have directly impacted citizens.

"We're not going to reduce school resource officers in middle school, and we're not going to rotate ambulances out of service," Cooke said of some of the proposed cuts submitted by departments.

Cooke said next year's financial crunch will be even worse, and departments will have to find deeper cuts which could likely include jobs.

"We're looking at more permanent reductions that have to be put into place, so that may require different strategies," he said.

The Board of Commissioners will vote on Cooke's recommendations at their regular meeting Feb. 2.