• Sumter County Council's May 21 budget workshop

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    Sumter County Council passed first reading of a $2.8 million general obligation bond as discussions of the Fiscal Year 2019-20 budget continued during a May 21, 2019, workshop.

    Council members also voted to increase the Road User Fee from $15 to $30 per vehicle to fund road maintenance.

    Tuesday’s meeting saw Third Circuit Solicitor Ernest A. “Chip” Finney III speak to Council regarding his request for a funding increase for his office to hire four new non-attorney positions totaling $280,000.

    Sumter County Veterans Affairs Director Valerie Brunson also spoke to Council about her request for one new full-time position totaling $40,000.

    Both requests were denied by County Council.

    Sumter County Administrator Gary Mixon gave a recap of prior budget workshops and proposed budgets, noting that the May 21 version shows estimated revenue of $51,908,042 matching with total operating expenditures of $51,908,042.

    In discussing the Road User Fee, Mixon touched on how material costs have risen since the fee was implemented in the mid-1990s. Crush and run gravel for instance, costs $7.50 a ton back in the 90s and now goes for $24 a ton, he said.

    “So that just multiplies out on the cost of doing a road,” he said.

    A fund balance was built up over the last few years but that balance has been used to cover annual costs of maintaining the program, he said. To maintain the maintenance program for the Road User Fee, the costs needs to increase from $15 to $22.50 per vehicle.

    Council Chairman James T. McCain Jr. noted that the average of surrounding counties is $30 a vehicle and Mixon agreed. The highest statewide Road User Fees are Horry and Georgetown counties at $50 per vehicle and Lee and Sumter counties are the lowest at $15 per vehicle, he said.

    Finance Director Jamie Michaelson said that Sumter County has 144.98 miles of dirt roads and 71 miles of crush and run roads for a total of non-paved roads of 216 miles. Most of the dirt roads are short and therefore it’s not easy to maintain or repair large stretches of dirt roads efficiently, he said.

    When the weather is decent, it takes the county’s Public Works Department about three weeks to make a maintenance circuit around the county’s dirt roads, Mixon said.

    Mixon said it would take $22.50 (per vehicle) to maintain the existing level of maintenance.

    Sumpter made a motion to increase the Road User Fee from $15 to $30. The motion passed.

    Mixon said the budget schedule would see second reading on the bond and budget on May 28 with a Sumter School District workshop on June 4.

    Third and final reading of the budget is scheduled for June 11.