By Betsy Finklea
Some preliminary discussion began about the City of Dillon budget at their last meeting.
Dillon City Manager Burt Rogers said it was this time of year that they start to work on the budget. Rogers said he and Janet Bethea had been speaking briefly about some ideas and things they were looking at. He said the CPI (Consumer Price Index) for this budget year is 2.95 percent. He said that’s looking at a three percent inflation rate. He said three percent is not a great deal of money. He said three percent is a three mil tax increase which would generate the city $66,000. The city’s insurance costs are going up 11 percent. He said they need to try to look at something for the employees because wages are very competitive these days. “We don’t want to have to go up on everything, but we may not have any choice,” Rogers said. He said last year they went up 10 percent on sanitation, and he didn’t feel that they could continue to go up 10 percent on sanitation. He said that was pricing them way up there with commercial trash and residential. He said they have to go up some and are looking at 3-5 percent in sanitation and water. He said he knows the county is going up 3 percent on the landfill fees. Rogers said they had to figure out a way to generate some more revenue. He said there are some loan payments coming off the books. Rogers said hopefully they will be able to continue what they are doing with just a modest increase in taxes and fees for sanitation and water.
Discussions will continue In the coming months as the budget is further developed for the upcoming fiscal year.
Preliminary Dillon City Budget Discussion Indicates Modest Increase In Taxes And Fees May Be On The Way
