Winnsboro Town Manager Don Wood and Mayor Roger Gaddy, M.D., said they want the community to know about the tough decisions that had to be made for the upcoming fiscal year 2010-2011.
“We knew this would be a difficult budget year,” said Wood. “Our utilities revenues are down due to the closing of Plastech and the Perry Ellis plants. Plastech was our biggest utility consumer. We now have consistent costs and reduced revenue.”
Wood said SCE&G passed along a transmission rate of $100,000, and the cost of fuel has increased.
“This is going to be a budget based on need, not wants,” he said.
“We started out with a projected deficit of $867,000,” Gaddy said. “The budget committee and Town Council started by cutting what they could cut. We went through six budget drafts until we came to this one.”
From the Town’s side, proposed cuts include a moratorium on staff and council travel budgets and pay raises. The summer youth program and crime prevention funds were eliminated. Other programs that formerly received mini-grants from the Town will not this year. A hiring freeze is in place, and future job vacancies will go unfilled. Employees will be required to take 40 hours of furlough. Capital improvement expenses have no appropriations this year for new equipment or improvements. Unanticipated expenses will have to come out of unrestricted investments.
“Those measures reduced the deficit by $390,000,” said Wood. “The remainder, $477,000, had to be passed along as rate increases.”
“Electric fees will be up 3.7 percent, water up 7.8 percent, sewer 7.2 percent, garbage for residences will go from $10 to $15 a month, and to $20 for businesses,” he said.
“We did everything we could to keep rates from increasing,” Wood said. “We have to cover our fixed costs. Our goal is to keep the budget lean without cutting services.”
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