County Moves Forward on $300M Budget for 2026-2027

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Anderson County Council on Tuesday approved the second reading of a proposed $300,110,140 budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 built from property taxes, fees, grants, and special funds, each ledger item detailed for a specific public purpose. The goal is keeping the county’s core machinery running, but make sure restricted revenues stay restricted, so the money raised for one service does not wander off to support another.

The current budget proposal contains no property tax increase, and a two percent raise for county employees.

From the $137,873,400 general fund, Public Safety at $66,393,215, which includes at its heart, the operations of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, makes up the largest line-item on the budget. The required hiring of 27 new deputies to serve at the new Anderson County Detention Center are added to the approximately 298 officers, who are tasked with patrolling the county’s 714-square miles, plus the 42 miles of water in emergencies, as well as the Emergency Management Department. The office also has 22 detention office civilians and 114 civilian employees, bringing the total to approximately 520 total positions.

The proposed budget also includes $12.5 million in capital projects funds for the new detention center, which is slated to open in November.

“The new budget also contains a continuation of the Sheriff’s Office pay plans, and $1.6 million for the new detention center,” said County Council Vice Chairman Brett Sanders, who heads the council’s finance committee.

County Councilman Jimmy Davis praised the efforts of Sanders for saving the county a great deal of money through his efforts.

County staff salaries and benefits and other administrative costs come in at $45.7 million and Roads and Bridges work at $13.8 million make up the other greatest demands in the budget, which will require third reading before passage.

The county is also waiting for the South Carolina General Assembly to finish their work and make official any directed funds, of which the county has several requests on the books.

The core of the budget is the general fund, where the county’s biggest operating obligations live. County Council is authorized to set the millage needed to support those appropriations, with the total county millage capped at 83.2 mills, not counting debt-service millage set separately by the auditor. This means property taxes are still the county’s main support beam, while other revenue streams are used to take some of the weight off taxpayers.

One of the largest of those other streams belongs to the Solid Waste and Recycling Department. The fund is fed by residential and commercial solid-waste fees, a Starr C&D Landfill usage fee of $33 per ton, and revenue from recycled-material sales, interest income, state grants, and tire revenues, which together are expected to total about $11,403,920 in fiscal year 2026-2027.

Residential taxes are collected through the annual real estate tax notice, and the county also adds late fees, supplemental processing charges, and additional penalties for accounts that remain unpaid.

Those solid-waste dollars are ring-fenced for solid-waste operations alone. They may be used for collection, disposal, transfer, recycling, equipment, facilities, administration, and related debt service, and the county may issue bonds or other obligations to finance those costs, with the fee revenue used to pay them back. Households that qualify for the State Homestead Exemption receive a lower residential fee of $40, a nod to the argument that older residents generate less waste and therefore should pay less for its removal.

Sewer revenue is handled on a similar logic, though the county’s obligations there are bound up with long-standing agreements with the City of Anderson, the Town of Pendleton, and the City of Clemson and the new shared facility, which gives the county capacity to grow for the next few years. Because the county does not set those municipal treatment costs itself, the ordinance treats them as pass-through charges, meaning sewer customers absorb the increases charged by those cities and towns in proportion to use. New users also must pay a capacity fee, and the resulting revenue is meant to cover system costs and debt service rather than general county spending.

Stormwater management is treated as a related but separate obligation, one that comes via federal and state law. The ordinance allows the county to use sewer-fund dollars for stormwater work when those funds are available and sufficient, instead of creating an additional fee structure for the same regulatory mandate. It is the sort of arrangement that reveals how counties often finance necessity: by stitching one utility-like fund to another when the accounting allows it.

Another important piece of the budget is the Public Infrastructure Fund, which collects fee-in-lieu-of-tax, or FILOT, revenues from county industrial and business parks. Those monies are reserved for infrastructure serving economic development, including capital projects and the debt service tied to bonds or notes issued for them. The county also maintains a Capital Renewal and Replacement Fund, giving council another reservoir for large future repairs or replacements.

The budget is also charged with governing how special tax districts and county organizations are funded. Revenues collected for special tax districts must be spent according to the ordinances that created them, including reimbursements to the Roads and Bridges Department. Boards, agencies, commissions, and other county-supported organizations must request funding formally and report on how they spent the previous quarter’s money, with audit reports due within six months after the fiscal year ends.

There are guardrails for the county’s internal spending habits. Department heads may shift up to $10,000 from one line item to another without council approval, but larger changes or cumulative transfers exceeding $20,000 need the council’s blessing. The administrator controls disbursements based on cash flow, while grants, credit card use, deposits, and other financial activity are subject to reporting rules and central accounting oversight.

Even the smaller provisions say something about how the county sees itself. Pauper burials are funded through the coroner’s budget, jurors receive set per diem and mileage rates, E-9-1-1 revenue is directed to emergency dispatch services, and road-encroachment permit fees are aimed at reimbursing the county for inspection and repair costs. The ordinance also sets rates for the civic center and animal shelter, addresses reasonable accommodations under federal law, and reaffirms the county’s commitment to small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses in procurement.

While property taxes carry the county’s basic obligations, the rest of the system depends on a web of fees, utility charges, grant money, and dedicated funds, each one assigned to a purpose and fenced off from the others. The effect is to keep Anderson County’s tax burden within its legal ceiling while making sure the services that people see — convenience centers, sewers, roads, dispatch, parks, infrastructure — are paid for by the revenues attached to them.