Florence County Council will hold a public hearing Thursday on the final budget for the current fiscal year.
It will not hold a public hearing for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, which includes a proposed 2-percent hospitality tax.
In other business, the council is scheduled during executive session Thursday to consider a personnel matter relating to former Tax Assessor Leval Williams.
The council voted last month to review the grievance filed by Williams, who was fired in March and had a closed grievance hearing in recent weeks.
County documents state that Williams was terminated after directing a contractor to change the dates on 360 property tax notices, which removed late penalties from the notices.
Williams had served as tax assessor since March 1999 and had worked 30 years with the county. He is running as a Democrat for county treasurer.
The council on Thursday likely will defer third and final readings of ordinances relating to H.J. Heinz Co.’s decision, announced Tuesday, to locate a plant in Florence. The measures will be deferred so the public will have an opportunity to speak on the ordinances during a June 19 public hearing.
The ordinances will establish a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement for Heinz and add a parcel at the Touchstone Energy Commerce City for the company’s future plant. Council Chairman Rusty Smith said Monday that they will assuredly pass.
The council also is scheduled Thursday to consider recommended allocations for $250,000 in state accommodations tax collections, $20,000 more than the county received last fiscal year. State law requires the money to go toward advertising and promotion of tourism.
The tax, collected on hotel room charges, is 2-percent statewide. But it is an additional 3 percent, for a total of 5 percent, in Florence County’s unincorporated areas.
The largest allocations proposed by the county’s Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee are:
- Florence Convention & Visitors Bureau: $100,500
- Florence Civic Center: $50,000
- Freedom Florence: $25,000
- Pee Dee Tourism Commission: $15,000
- Florence Regional Arts Alliance: $12,000
- The Frontage Road Association: $10,000
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