$32.5 million county budget up for public hearing, final vote Monday

DARLINGTON - Darlington County Council will hold a public hearing and final reading on its proposed $32.5 million budget package for fiscal 2010 Monday at 6 p.m. at the Courthouse Annex/Emergency Medical Services Building at 1625 Harry Byrd Highway, Darlington.

The budget package includes eight budget ordinances that have already made it through second reading. Each ordinance passed without opposition and with no discussion. The budget includes no property tax increase.

The general fund budget of more than $24.8 million saw a cut in revenue for the upcoming year of more than $1.1 million, County Administrator Phyllis Griffitts told council when she presented the budget proposal on May 19. Of that, $991,910 came in the form of a cut by the state in funding to the county, she said.

The state also cut $66,500 in state aid to public libraries and another $19,000 in state lottery funds for libraries, according to Griffitts. The new library budget amounts to more than $2.3 million.

The budget package also includes an environmental services budget of more than $2.6 million, a Darlington County Fire District budget of more than $1.2 million, a Darlington County Economic Development Partnership budget of just over $1 million and an emergency telephone services budget of $385,000.

Of the total budget expenditures in the package, wages and salaries account for more than $17.2 million, about 53.15 percent of the budget’s total expenditures. Operations accounts for almost $9.6 million, about 29.58 percent, grants almost $3.8 million or 11.57 percent and capital expenditures more than $1.8 million or 5.7 percent.

Many of the decreases in budget requests needed to balance the budget without raising property taxes came in some operational and some capital fund accounts and some accounts for grant matches, Griffitts said.

“This has been a challenging budget year due to state cuts,“ Griffitts said in her annual budget message to council on May 19.

Delays in the budgeting process this year meant the county was unable to publish the necessary advertisements publicizing revenue and expenditure figures well enough in advance of the public hearings to be able to vote on third and final reading at its regular meeting on June 15, Griffitts said.