Aiken County may be have netted some ice storm allocations in the state's budget conference report, set to be considered this week, according to the county administrator.
A conference committee in the Statehouse reached a budget compromise last week following weeks of discussion. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are expected to return as early as Tuesday to consider and adopt the budget.
Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian said Friday the County has been informed money for the 2014 ice storm is included in the conference report but not the full reimbursement.
He did not have an exact number for what the reimbursement could be as of Friday but is expecting more information this week.
The County has included $4 million in its budget proposal this year from the ice storm known as Winter Storm PAX. It may face a shortfall without it.
The ice storm left damage to several counties in February 2014 and caused some of the heaviest damage in Aiken County.
As previously reported by the Aiken Standard, Aiken and the S.C. Department of Transportation incurred expenses in cleaning up public roadways, according to Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken.
As a part of the emergency assistance agreement, the federal government reimbursed counties and municipalities around 80 percent of their expenses, the senator has said.
The unreimbursed portion is called the "non-federal state/local share."
Legislators two years ago appropriated $4.1 million as the state's allocation share to reimburse the local governments for 25 percent of their non-federal reimbursed expenses, according to previous newspaper reports.
Aiken County has since awaited the remaining reimbursements, and officials have pointed out other municipalities have been fully funded for other recently declared natural disasters.
Separately, the County joins other South Carolina municipalities affected by changes to the pension fund this year after the Legislature recently passed a reform act to address the underfunded retirement system.
Killian said legislators did add money to the local government fund that could offset pension contributions.
"We are pretty sure that the recommendation is to pick up half of the pension fund increase," Killian said.
He said the move would mean around a $380,000 net positive impact for Aiken County's budget this year. It is unclear what it will be going forward.
County Council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday. A public hearing and second reading of the proposed fiscal year 2018 budget is slated for the meeting. A budget work session will follow, Killian said.
Aiken County's budget proposal balances revenues and expenditures for the general fund at nearly $66.3 million. The total budget is a little more than $186.8 million.
Another budget work session is currently scheduled for June 13. Killian expects the budget's third and final reading to be considered on June 20.
