The proposed budget for Aiken County for the 2024-2025 fiscal year includes a 3% raise for all county employees and no increase in property taxes.
There also is funding for 21 new positions in the financial plan that County Administrator Brian Sanders and his staff prepared.
Sanders presented their budget recommendations to County Council on Tuesday at the Aiken County Government Center.
The amount for both revenues and expenditures for the General Fund, which provides money for the county’s day-to-day operating expenses, is $96,899,065.
With all funds included, the figure for both revenues and expenditures is $253,677,432.
The 2024-2025 fiscal year will begin July 1.
By law, the county must have a balanced budget.
In addition Tuesday, County Council unanimously approved the first reading of the 2024-2025 budget ordinance.
Three readings are required before it can take effect.
“I’m proud of this budget,” Sanders said. “I think it addresses a lot of needs. As I stated in my budget letter, there were almost $16 million in requests that we had to whittle down. It’s not a perfect budget, but I believe it is a very good one and one that will take us a lot of steps forward during the next [fiscal] year.”
In the budget approved by County Council for fiscal year 2023-2024, public safety was the focus, according to County Council Chairman Gary Bunker.
The big items were a 15% pay raise for Sheriff’s Office employees and funding to address issues in the Emergency Medical Services Department.
In addition, there was a property tax increase.
For 2024-2025, however, the theme is more about trying to address “quite a few things” across all the other departments, Bunker said.
“Retention of the existing workforce” also is a priority, he added.
All nine members of County Council were present for the panel’s meeting Tuesday.
Other action taken by County Council included the unanimous approval of a resolution to appoint members to the Capital Project Sales Tax V Commission.
The members are Andrew Marine, Brett Brannon, Shane Bagby, Nora Sanders, Reggie Ebner and Austin Taylor.
They will “review” the lists of projects submitted by the county, City of Aiken, City of North Augusta and eight smaller municipalities “to check for appropriateness under State law and reasonableness of need to the County,” according to the resolution.
The other purpose of the resolution was to provide County Council as a whole the opportunity to approve and possibly amend the recommended list of county projects prepared by an ad hoc committee of the panel.
No changes were made to the list that the ad hoc committee created.
The county is expected to receive approximately $127.6 million from the 1% tax if local voters approve it in November.
The ad hoc committee’s spending recommendations included the following:
• $12 million for emergency medical services ambulances and “upfit” equipment.
• $10.7 million for paving dirt roads.
• $10,556,423 for general fleet and equipment additions and replacements.
• $8 million for communication system upgrades and towers for volunteer fire departments and public safety agencies.
• $7 million for Sheriff’s Office vehicles and equipment.
• $5 million for the construction of new emergency medical services stations and the expansion of existing stations.
• $5 million for Whiskey Road intersection and corridor improvements.
