After weeks of wrangling, a budget standoff between Anderson County officials and the sheriff was quickly resolved Monday as county commissioners voted 13-0 to approve a budget that doesn’t include a tax increase but sets aside money for more jailers.
The goal was to give Anderson County Sheriff Paul White a total of 13 jailers so he can open a new 128-bed minimum security dormitory this summer. After a tax hike last year, county officials didn’t want to raise the property tax rate again this year.
Anderson County Interim Mayor Myron Iwanski had proposed reserving $325,000 in unused funds from the current year’s budget to pay for the extra jailers.
“It’s a reasonable compromise,” Anderson County Interim Myron Iwanski said.
County commissioners had already agreed to give White five more jailers, but they balked at adding another eight.
Under the agreement reached Monday, the sheriff is expected to look for cost savings. County commissioners have pressed him to make budget cuts and cut the number of cars his department uses, possibly reducing the fleet from 94 vehicles to 70.
Also Monday, commissioners agreed to use $117,000 in cable franchise and title search fees to fund a 1 percent pay raise for county general fund employees.
Leave a Reply