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Published on 6/10/2009

By Tim Callahan

Timcallahan01@aol.com

A reduction in the county government's work force is needed to balance the $58.1 million fiscal year 2010 budget, County Administrator Sel Hemingway said Tuesday.

Hemingway presented council with a plan that would include making a three percent pay cut across the board, switching some full-time positions to part-time and eliminating authorized positions.

The force could also be reduced through retirements and unfilled vacancies, he said. Doing these things will save the county about $1.14 million, Hemingway said.

After the meeting, Hemingway said he was not willing to talk about what "authorized positions" means, what county jobs would be cut, and what jobs would be made part-time.

"I want to be able to talk to the employees first," he said.

The county administrator said that each department director was asked to scrutinize and identify ways to cut the budget.

Councilman Jerry Oakley said the proposed budget does not include a tax increase. The millage would be 21.4 for the general government fund, 9.7 mills for Midway Fire Rescue, 25.7 mills for Georgetown County Fire District #1 service, and 2.4 mills for solid waste recycling and collection in unincorporated areas.

The proposed fiscal year 2010 budget is $3.19 million, or 5 percent, less than this year's original adopted budget, finance director Scott Proctor said. And, he added, the proposed budget is $7.23 million less than the 2009 amended budget.

Going into Wednesday's County Council the budget was $1.72 million short of balancing. After the second reading of the proposed budget, the budget was balanced -- on paper.

Hemingway found another $391,275 in savings through some other juggling within the budget, leaving $174,000 needed to make it balance. Hemingway said the general fund balance could make up the difference.

However, with all the cutting, law enforcement's budget would actually increase 12 percent. Law Enforcement's budget would be $10.19 million, compared to $9.05 million this year. However, the amended budget this year has climbed to $9.63 million, he said.

Hemingway said some of this increase comes from "the significant changes" in the proposed budget from council's last meeting, which included moving 911 Communications to the law enforcement budget, along with 1.3 mills of property tax to pay for those costs; and moving the responsibility to cover a shortfall in the emergency telephone system to law enforcement.

Under the proposed budget, some changes from 2008-2009 include: Victim Services budget would be cut 30 percent, from $263,000 to $184,000; the road improvement fund would be cut in half, from $3.6 million to $1.7 million; and the general government fund would see a 6.2 percent drop, from $22.19 to $20.82 million.