‘Facing COVID-19’: Horry County proposes a $50 million spending decrease for next year
Horry County is expecting the coronavirus economic downturn to be worse locally than 9/11 or the Great Recession.
And in preparation for a potential loss in the government’s income, Horry County Council is considering a spending budget for the next fiscal year that is down $51 million from the current one.
Horry County Assistant Administrator for Finance Barry Spivey said the budget was strong before the pandemic began with many departments spending less than expected.
“We were preparing for council what we thought was a positive budget, but now we are facing COVID-19,” Spivey said.
On Friday, Spivey briefed council virtually on how the pandemic will affect Horry County spending in the coming year.
Spivey said business license, accommodation tax, hospitality fee and other revenue streams are at high risk for the tourism and local economy being brought to a halt due to the pandemic quarantine efforts. Going into March, these sensitive revenues were largely ahead of budget after collections earlier in the year which helped lessen the impact.
Property taxes are stable and the revenue is growing. The general fund, the largest in the budget, draws 60 percent of its funds from property taxes, Spivey said. This helps keep the county afloat during the crisis.
Now the new budget recommendation is to essentially maintain current service with a $481 million in the new budget compared to the $532 million budget currently.
There will be no furloughs, tax increases, new debts or decreases in services at this time. There also won’t be any raises for employees or any new hires except for public safety officers until the crisis is over.
“We will commit to come back with a budget amendment when the economy is back to a normal environment,” Spivey said. “But we will have to manage through this event.”
The federal stimulus package will reimburse the county for the money it spends dealing with the coronavirus, but it currently does not cover revenue shortfalls due to the economic shutdown. This may change, Spivey said.
Money could also come from FEMA, HUD and the state to help cover the costs Horry County is spending to fight the virus. Notably, Horry County’s waste management costs are way up, which Spivey said could be due to quarantine spring cleaning.
In addition, South Carolina has delayed a 1 percent retirement rate increase, which will help the county tremendously.
But it hasn’t been all bad. Code enforcement, which charges a fee for its inspections, saw one of its strongest months ever in March. In addition, past councils have set aside emergency money that can be used to stabilize the budget.
“We expect to use those full resources. We will replace them as the market and economy improves,” Spivey said. “The economy will come back, but we don’t know how slow it’ll be.”
The county said in a follow-up statement that the plan is to keep additional emergency funds saved for hurricane season.
Horry County staff will spend the next few months fine-tuning the budget ahead of its June approval deadline. If conditions with the pandemic improve, past plans to increase funding for stormwater, parks, public safety and the solid waste departments could return.
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 12:02 PM.
