City Administrator Max Alderman will present a balanced 2022-23 budget for first reading at the March 15 meeting, but council members are not in agreement about how this will be achieved.
At a budget workshop Tuesday, Alderman discussed the options for making up revenue shortages of $236,079 in the General Fund and $563,106 in the Enterprise Fund.
To balance the General Fund, a $3 sanitation fee would be added for $150,000 in revenue, fund the transfer to capital plan with ARPA funds for $85,000 and decrease contingency by $1,079.
To balance the Enterprise Fund, a design rate adjustment from .50 to .0443 would allow for $473,106 in revenue and fund the transfer to capital plan with ARPA funds for $90,000.
At the Feb. 8 workshop, Alderman has discussed the need to adjust the Utility Plants’ certified operator pay grades.
In April of 2021, the council approved a request to adjust a certified Operator A at pay grade 23. Alderman recommended for the upcoming budget to adjust the Operators B and C pay grades to 20 and 19 to maintain the same relative pay between operator levels.
The cost to make this change is $21,600 including benefits.
This can be funded with a $0.50 increase in the minimal monthly water rate.
Some council members had a problem with the sanitation fee increase.
Council member Gregory Scott said citizens were already complaining about the city not doing enough with sanitation.
Council member Jean Quick did not like it and was very concerned about senior citizens.
Alderman said it was difficult but the city’s cost were going up and they couldn’t just do nothing.
Council member Allen Taylor noted they couldn’t just keep giving services away. Council member Tyron Abraham said he was concerned and knew something had to be done.
The March 8 budget workshop of the Bennettsville City Council can be found on the City of Bennettsville-Government & City Services Facebook page.