Horry County Council members eyeing budget retreat

It’s still a few months before Horry County Council’s spring budget retreat, but that doesn’t mean council members aren’t looking ahead.

District 7 Councilman James Frazier wants to make sure there’s enough money available to compensate county employees, whose salaries and bonuses have been reduced or halted altogether in light of the economic crisis over the last few years.

“That’s not good,” Frazier said. “The employees have to go to the same grocery store as everybody else.”

Westley Sawyer, the county budget and revenue manager, told council members at November’s fall budget meeting that county employees have gone without pay raises for three years as administrators have had to weather a rough economic climate.

At the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the county found itself in better standing. The general fund balance - totaling $37.1 million - has $9.8 million unassigned.

During that November meeting, Frazier said the council needed to thank the county employees by “putting some money in their pockets.”

District 3 Councilman Marion Foxworth said there is going to be an effort to adjust employee salary, which could include a cost-of-living adjustment.

He also thinks there may be an effort to roll back the three-tenths of a millage property tax increase that was approved by council following last spring’s budget session.

The biggest area of contention during the spring budget session and subsequent budget approval was the three-tenths of a millage property tax increase implemented to help fund Coast RTA, which equates to $1.20 more per year on a $100,000 home, or $2.40 on a $200,000 home.

Foxworth said the county is in better shape heading into the 2012 budget session than they’ve been in the past three years.

“In all three of the major divisions, there were savings,” he said.

Those divisions are administration, public safety and infrastructure and regulation. Those three payrolls came in roughly $2.8 million under budget.

“The employees did a great job as far as keeping expenditures low,” Foxworth said.

As far as tax collections, Foxworth said the county was significantly ahead over what was projected - a $9.5 million gap.

Foxworth said the primary reason was more people were paying their taxes late, and those penalties and interest added up. He said staff does well when it comes to making projections on tax collections, but in this instance, they were wrong in a good way.

District 2 Councilman Brent Schulz’s wish list for the spring budget cycle is to use more money to increase public safety.

“I’d like to see more folks on the street,” Schulz said, regarding fire and EMS personnel.

During the last budget session, public safety reduced Horry County Fire Rescue’s overtime budget by $800,000, which is the equivalent of 16 positions.

An ad hoc committee, which Schulz serves on, has been reviewing a 2008 fire rescue study to seek ways to improve the department, including upping volunteer recruitment.

The committee has not finished its examination of the study. Once it does, any recommendations will be passed on to the full council for consideration.