Aiken County Council will vote on the second of three readings on the proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget today and some policy decisions could be ahead for Council members, County Administrator Clay Killian said during a public work session last week.
Residents are invited to comment on the proposed budget at a public hearing, which will be held at the regularly scheduled Council meeting at 7 p.m. today in the Aiken County Government Center, 1930 University Parkway.
The full budget is available for review in the County Administrator's Office or the Council Clerk's Office, Council documents state.
Aiken County's budget is around $159 million. The proposed general fund budget is $61 million.
Killian has pointed out at previous work sessions, the proposed budget uses one-time funds, including $530,000 from the sale of the Teledyne building in Verenes Industrial Park, $600,000 from the Other Post-Employment Benefits Program (OPEB) and $1.7 million for the 2014 ice storm to balance the budget.
State lawmakers representing Aiken pushed for the remaining 75 percent of the non-federal covered portion of ice storm costs to be budgeted in the state budget, which they estimated could have equaled around $4.5 million for Aiken County.
After learning reimbursements for the ice storm were not included in the state budget conference report last week, Killian told Council it could be tasked with finding other revenue or making cuts.
The state's conference report on its budget includes a $10.6 million increase for the local government fund, lawmakers said.
Killian has said the increase would mean an additional $305,000 in local government fund money for the County. The total is around $6.3 million. If the state funded the fund the way the formula requires, the County would get around $8.9 million, he said.
With local government fund monies, counties help to house and fund state-mandated services. This includes services such as court functions and office space for the health department, said Tim Winslow, assistant general counsel for the South Carolina Association of Counties.
Since the 2008-09 recession, the state has not fully funded the local government fund, leaving counties with few choices, Winslow said.
"If these dollars don't come to the county government, there's only one other way for the government to pay for these services - it's to raise property taxes," he said.
Members of Aiken County Council have said they are committed to not raising taxes.
While Winslow said he wouldn't complain about an increase in the local government fund, it is still millions short from what the statutory formula requires. County Council member Andrew Siders criticized the legislature's decision in an interview with the Aiken Standard on Friday.
"It was a paltry increase," Siders said. "It was not enough and no one is happy about that."
Council has proposed looking at what state-mandated services could be trimmed to compensate the local government fund not being fully funded. Killian is expected to provide the information to Council at its meeting.
Christina Cleveland is the county government reporter at the Aiken Standard. Follow her on Twitter @ChristinaN Cleve.