Four public bodies in and around Clinton will take final actions on their budgets - with the expectation of having the new spending plans in place by July 1 - during called meetings on June 23.
These are the boards of School Districts 56 and 55, Clinton City Council and Laurens County Council.
For the County Council, it’s a second public hearing on its $48.7 Million budget - council also scheduled a hear-from-the-public time at its June 9 regular meeting.
Another public body, the board of the Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission, will consider its budget on June 24.
All of these budget-hearing sessions are open to the public under provisions of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act. Each public body sets its own procedures about how members of the public can be heard about budget matters.
According to an advertisement printed in The Chronicle, the City of Clinton’s proposed budget is $35M, up from $33.6M last year - that’s a 4.45% increase. It does not project a property tax increase, at 131.3 mils. However, Council Member Anita Williams said at a June 2 meeting that it does increase sanitation costs and gives city employees a 5% across-the-board pay increase, something to which she objected. Williams favors, instead, a tiered system where lower paid employees’ pay increase percentage would be more - City officials say the pay hike is necessary to stem the tide of Clinton employees leaving for other jobs, many of whom have left to work for Laurens County.
For its part, the County is increasing its budget by 10%.
That’s a proposed $48.7M, compared to this year’s 44.3M budget. Rapid residential growth in Northern Laurens County has given the county more money to work with - turning low-taxes agriculture and ranch land into high-value subdivisions.
The County projects that the millage in dollars as necessary for Laurens County’s FY 2025-2026 proposed budget is almost $20M (a projected $19,959,951 at 64.13 mils).
“The millage for Laurens County’s FY 2025-2026 is 92.05,” says a county advertisement published in The Chronicle.
The City of Clinton’s budget public hearing will be June 23, 6 p.m. in the council chambers of the municipal building at 211 North Broad Street. The Laurens County budget public hearing will be June 23, 6 p.m. in the training room of the Bolt Drive Complex, 105 Bolt Dr., Suite B, Laurens.
Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees for School District 56 will have a public hearing on its proposed 2025-2026 budget on June 23, 6 p.m. in the District 56 Conference Center, 100 Legion Dr., Clinton.
The board expects to increase property taxes by 4.9 mils to 172.4 total operations millage. The District 55 Board also has been asked to consider a 4.9 mil property tax increase, to balance its $62M budget - it should be ready for final action at a 6:30 p.m. meeting on June 23. It would be first District 55 tax increase since 2013-14, the board has been told.
This will be District 56’s first property tax increase since FY14, according to a chart in a budget document presented to the board. The Trustees are entitled to raise taxes without a referendum up to the cost-of-living increase, which this year is set at 2.9% (inflation) - that’s 167.5 current millage x 0.0295 = allowed millage increase of 4.9, with a growth factor of 0.
Another chart in the same document shows that D56 enrollment has gone from 2,996 in 2015-16 to 2,551 in 2024-25. Another portion of this chart observes that D56 enrollment decreased by 208 students in 2019-20 when Thornwell Charter School and Summit Classical School opened, both in Clinton - Thornwell Charter now has absorbed the Summit campus. Despite having fewer students, payroll costs account for 51% of the increase in operating costs. The D56 budget will increase by 4.1%, to $34.5M (from $33M this year). The district’s 167.5 mils this year increasing to 172.4 mils next year is expected to generate $10.66M in local operating millage revenue. An additional 80 mils finances the district’s debt service.
The operations of the Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission have an impact on Clinton in terms of wastewater disposal - the city’s sewer connect to pipes that feed into the Bush River Treatment plant between Joanna and the Newberry County line - and a small amount of water that LCWSC buys from the City of Clinton for a Hwy 56 North line. Most of LCWSC’s water is generated by its own Lake Greenwood Treatment Plant, which virtually eliminated the need for LCWSC to buy water for re-sale from Clinton and the Laurens CPW.
LCWSC projects its 2025-2026 revenues at $15.8M - up 8.26% from this year - and expenditures at $11.6M - up 7.99% from this year, and any excess revenues over expenses go toward capital expenses or capital reserves including debt service. The commission does not receive tax money for its operations budget.
The LCWSC’s board will conduct a public hearing on the commission’s budget on June 24, 8:15 a.m. in the commission office at 3850 Hwy 221S, Laurens.
LCWSC provides water service for 17,405 mostly rural customers, but also some in Joanna and Gray Court, and some sewer services in addition to managing the wastewater treatment plant. Its 2024-25 operating budget was total revenues: $14,626,849 and total expenditures: $10,798,497. Its budget calls for installation of 750 new water taps a year and, at its May 27 meeting, the board was told that figure year-to-date was 726 paid-for water taps. The commission budgets for 600 new sewer taps per year and this year’s-to-date figure was 491, according to May 27 figures -- this growth is primarily in the new subdivisions of Northern Laurens County. However, the board was cautioned, no new subdivisions have been permitted in Laurens County in the past 2 years.
