Darlington County budget gets final OK

DARLINGTON — Darlington County Council gave final approval Monday to a $32.5 million county budget for fiscal 2009.

Council gave unanimous third-reading approval to eight ordinances making up the budget package.

But council also rejected a move by council member Wesley Blackwell of Hartsville to reduce funding for the county recreation program and redistribute responsibilities for administering the program to the cities of Hartsville and Darlington.

Blackwell offered an amendment to the $24.4 million general fund budget to allocate funding for recreation countywide on a $5 per capita basis for total funding of more than $369,000, versus $515,000 in the budget for recreation.

Councilman Le Flowers of Darlington said that shortchanged rural areas like those he represents. “I don’t see any rural communities included in this,” he said.

Flowers said the city of Darlington had neither the infrastructure nor the personnel to adequately provide recreational services to areas like Dovesville and Society Hill. He said the funding proposal Blackwell proposed would leave areas like Society Hill and Lamar with just $19,000 each for recreational services.

“Society Hill is a wide area,” said councilman Dannie Douglas of Society Hill. “Nineteen thousand ain’t going to touch it.”

Blackwell said people in Lamar already use recreational facilities at Byerly Park in Hartsville and said he would like to see other rural areas use facilities in Hartsville and Darlington.

“We work for Darlington County,” said councilwoman Wilhelmina Johnson of Darlington. “If we’re going to redistribute services from rural areas, who are we working for?”
“Not all recreation is organized leagues,” Flowers said. He said the recreational facilities the county provides in rural areas provide families in those areas with opportunities to spend time together.

He said he supports the recreation programs in Hartsville available through Byerly Park and in Darlington. “But we represent the county,” he said.

Council voted 4-1 against Blackwell’s proposed amendment. Voting against the amendment were Flowers, Douglas, Johnson and councilwoman Mozella “Pennie”  Nicholson of Hartsville. Blackwell cast the only vote for the amendment. Chairman Billy Baldwin of Darlington and members Anne Warr of Lamar and Alex “Buz” Shaw of Hartsville did not vote.

The general fund budget comes with a property tax increase of $320,380, or 1.66 mills, which is within the cap imposed by the state under the 2.9 percent Consumer Price Index increase approved by the State Budget and Control Board.

That increase will add about $10.49 to the annual property tax bill on an owner-occupied home with an assessed value of $158,000. On a $30,000 automobile, the increase will be $2.99 a year.

Revenues in the general fund budget from local property taxes grew by $311,590 as a result of growth in the county’s tax base.

The millage rate increase and the additional growth together will produce a total revenue increase of $806,850 in the general fund budget.

Of the total $32.5 million budget package, 53.9 percent — more than $17.5 million — is allocated for salaries and wages. Another $9,453,920, or about 29.06 percent will go to fund operations. Grants account for $2,312,980 or about 7.11 percent of the total revenue. And $3,231,640, or 9.93 percent, will go toward capital expenses.

Council held public hearings on each of the budget ordinances before Monday’s vote. No one spoke for or against the ordinances.

Council also heard a presentation from Phil Goff of the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments on long-term future highway needs in the Pee Dee region.

One project included in that, he said, is the widening of U.S. Highway 52 from the 52 bypass in Darlington to Dovesville north of Darlington. He said the S.C. Department of Transporta-tion is expected to begin acquiring rights-of-way for the project in the fall, and that process, he said, should take two to three years. Construction on the widening project, he said, could start in five to six years.