AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Augusta leaders have been crunching numbers since October, and Thursday is scheduled to be their last budget work session.“Well, personally, I would like to see more cuts. I personally don’t want to see taxes go up,” said Commissioner Tina Slendak.The budget before commissioners is calling for a 3 percent cut across the board for city departments and a tax hike to offset a $20 million-dollar shortfall.“We’ve got a deficit in this budget. This budget, since I’ve been on this commission has never been like this. So are we ready to vote on it? No,” said Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice.Commissioners have set a deadline of Nov. 18th to approve the budget, so Thursday’s work session will need to provide a lot of answers.“The 18th is very optimistic. We have a lot of information that we still need to share with our governing body, so hopefully we can get everything approved on the 18th, but that may not happen,” said City Administrator Tameka…..