Clarendon County Council passed its second reading of the county's 2015-16 fiscal year budget Monday night, hearing at the same time budget plans from all three school districts and the F.E. DuBose Center campus of Central Carolina Technical College.
Clarendon County Controller Lynden Anthony discussed the county's budget first, saying that general fund expenditures will be roughly $20,291,413, giving a deficit for second reading of $426,541.
"Bringing this into balance between now and final reading will not be easy," Anthony said. "We are working closely with Administrator David Epperson and department managers, and we have already saved some $76,000 in general fund expenses by allocating existing staff to other departments of need."
Looking at requests for equipment and attempting to take care of those under the current budget year also helped the county reduce the deficit by about $200,000 from first reading in April.
"We looked at current spending levels, and asked that they acquire certain equipment needed in this year," Anthony said. "That is because we are running under budget this year."
Anthony also recommended the county suspect its application process for the Community Grants Program, which provides roughly $250,000 each budget year for agencies like Clemson Extension.
"This year we had 14 grant applications, which were in excess of $630,000 in requests," Anthony said. "I'm not saying not to give the funding. I'm saying that we suspend the process of having a committee look at the applications and decide. Instead, I believe we should go on a line-item basis and allocate those funds."
Anthony said the county millage rate may increase by 1.62 percent - or 2.4 mills - for county operations, according to state law. This will bring the county to about 148.5 mills.
He said the county can't expect to get much more funding from the state than it has in prior years for operations.
"The local government fund's treatment in the Senate budget matched that of the House, which means no growth or increase from the prior year," Anthony said. "That means this is the third year of no increase in the local government fund. And with the budgets passed in the House and Senate, it looks like there's no additional increase for next year, either."
Anthony said the local government fund is the fourth-largest source of funding for Clarendon County.
"It's the largest outside of ad valorem taxes, which include real estate, vehicle and delinquent taxes," he noted.
The local government fund was created in 1991, with state law requiring 4.5 percent of the state's general fund to be passed to counties for state-mandated service provided at a local level.
"The largest component is various court-related funding, meaning the Clerk of Court, magistrate judges and probate," Anthony said.
In 2006, the state provided a little more than $1.5 million for the local government fund to Clarendon County.
"The budget before you (this year) anticipates a little less than $1.3 million, which means a nearly $250,000 reduction in the last 10 years," Anthony said. "Yet, there's a $313,000 increase in the state-mandated court functions. That shifts the financial obligation for the provision of those state services from the state to the local governments."
He said the difference will be absorbed by the county's general fund.
Council members then opened the floor to the county's three districts and the F.E. DuBose Center, which each presented their planned budgets for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
"Public education is the largest public expenditure and the largest state expenditure in almost every state," said Council Chairman Dwight Stewart. "South Carolina school districts are limited in ways they can raise money. They mostly rely on state aid and local property taxes. School districts may also borrow through general obligation bonds to finance capital expenditures."
District 1 Finance Director Renee Jeffcoat told council that the district's budget is balanced at $6,603,081 after its first reading.
"This includes a base student cost of $2,222, and a one-year step increase for applicable teacher positions," Jeffcoat said.
Dr. Rose Wilder told council members that District 1 has about 802 students, and explained the district's teacher-to-student ratio.
"Right now at the kindergarten, we have about 30 students for each teacher, and one classroom has at least 31 students," she said. "We are working on bringing that down to 25. In first grade, we have about 21 or 22 per teacher, in third grade we have about 22 or 23 per teacher and in middle school it's about 27 or 28 per teacher."
She said the high school's student-to-teacher ratio is helped by F.E. DuBose.
"The vocational school really helps us with the high school ratio," Wilder said.
District 2 Superintendent John Tindal said his district has a class size of about 25 students per teacher. He said the district has 2,000 students and about 370 employees. He noted that his district's 2015-16 budget is balanced at $18,333,000.
District 3 Superintendent Connie Dennis said her faculty and staff will be embracing change in the coming fiscal year to deal with financial hardships. Finance Director Mike Jackson said while the state has pledged to provide up to $100 more per student per district, the state's taking $90,000 from K-12 lottery funding means about a $60,000 net gain.
"Last year, we came to you and were eligible for a millage increase of about 4.1, and this year, we're limited to about 4.5," Jackson said. "That's only going to generate about $30,000 more. We don't feel like that 4.5 is worth it to the taxpayers when we're already three times higher in property taxes than districts 1 and 2."
Jackson asked council members to "put into place something that would increase our assessed property valuation."
"Do something to make the property that we have more valuable in District 3," Jackson implored.
Jackson discussed his district's proposal to change the local option sales tax passed in 2004 by the state legislature to provide funds for school operations. While the district supplied three separate proposals, it ultimately settled on one that would see the funds after debt service used for operations, and asked council to invert the formula to provide the most funding to the "less assessed value" district, which for the moment is District 3.
"It's obvious to everyone that we want to remain separate districts," Jackson said. "But we also want the county to treat us equally. Our request is for separate, but equal funding for the districts."
Stewart said Monday night, as he has at other meetings, that the only way to do so is to consolidate districts, qualifying that he is not for consolidation either way.
"I've stated the obvious before, but no one wants to hear it," Stewart said.
He explained that the value of a mill per district varies significantly throughout Clarendon County, due to assessed property valuations.
"The mill values this year for District 3 is somewhere about $6,000 per mill," Stewart said. "District 2 has one of $45,000 per mill and District 1 is about $25,000 per mill. I can't think of a way to ever get those millages the same that I see."
He said districts across the state aren't even equal.
"In Clarendon County, for county purposes, our mill is $98,000 per mill, while Greenville is $1.9 million per year," he said. "We won't ever reach their mill value. We can't do it. So we have to find that money somewhere else. I don't know a way to treat us separate but equal without consolidating."
Dennis said she just wants the best for the 1,200 students in Turbeville and New Zion, and also the district's 154 employees.
Councilman Benton Blakely agreed.
"They're living on bread and water over there," he said. "It's time to find some way to help them."
