The City of Hartsville is feeling the effects of the current economic downturn much like every city, and they are planning to make budget changes to give the city more financial security, City Manager Jim Pennington told city council members during Tuesday's meeting.
"We're no different than anybody else in the country right now," Pennington said on Wednesday. "The city, county and state are really concerned about what they are going to do next."
Pennington told council members that council's retreat next month will be spent mostly talking about budget issues. "We are to cut back as much as possible," he said. He said the city is in a tight situation budget-wise until January.
Given the banking crisis that has hit the nation, Hartsville, like many other cities, is tightening its budget as a preventative measure. In the event something happens in the city, such as a lightning strike that shuts down city hall like the one that occurred this summer, Pennington is concerned they may not be able to secure any loans to pay for the incident.
"This time of the year is always a bad time of year," Pennington said, "because taxes don't come in until January, normally. But, I'm really concerned with what cities are facing nationwide. Right now, credit is so tight other communities are having hard times unless they have reserves."
The budget cuts, Pennington said, are a preemptive move to keep the city from falling into a situation in which they need money but cannot secure it. "We have no clue what is coming around the corner," the city manager said. "We're looking at a number of things. Not only what is happening now, but what is going to happen in the future."
Many of the budget concerns, Pennington said, stem from the fact that Hartsville provides resources to a population of nearly 40,000 people, while the city only has a tax base of around 7,000 residents. If these economic issues continue, and the city's tax base does not increase, the city may be forced to withdraw funding on some of the extra services it provides. To counter that, Pennington said the city attempts to keep its services as self-sufficient as possible.
Pennington said projections indicate the city's tax base may actually shrink in the near future. That illustrates the need for initiatives such as the Selling Hartsville Initiative that look to increase the city's tax base and the Darlington County Economic Development Partnership that aims to bring more industry and business to the area.
"The community always finds a way to deal with these kinds of problems," he said. "Hartsville as a city has never been a wealthy city, but the community is ... That's what makes us OK."
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