An Anderson County committee this afternoon will consider a budget that doesn’t include a tax increase or an additional $2 million requested by the Sheriff’s Department.
Anderson County Mayor Myron Iwanski said the extra $2 million requested by Sheriff Paul White would increase his department’s budget by 20 percent in the fiscal year that begins July 1. The sheriff’s budget has already doubled during the past six years, Iwanski said.
The mayor said the sheriff could make minor adjustments in his $10 million budget and the assignments of his 175 authorized employees. Those adjustments would allow the dormitory at the overcrowded jail to be staffed until a new pod is built. That pod will have extra beds that can be rented to produce the revenue to hire more jailers, Iwanski said.
The mayor said county revenues are flat and expenses are rising, and his proposed budget generally keeps each department at last year’s funding levels.
However, extra funding would be provided to cover an anticipated 10 percent increase in medical costs. But if those costs rise less than expected, Iwanski said in a e-mail last week, Anderson County employees could get a small raise.
Iwanski also recommended that the schools balance their budget without a tax increase. And, for the second year in a row, he is not using the undesignated fund balance—the county’s “rainy-day” fund—to balance the budget.
Iwanski said last year’s budget required some difficult decisions, and it included $1 million in cuts as well as a tax increase “to solve some long-standing capital project problems.”
“These decisions put the county on sound financial footing and in my opinion will allow us to avoid the need for tax increases for the next several years,” the mayor said.
Today’s Budget Committee meeting starts at 4 p.m. at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
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