From Harrison Cahill- Lexington County Public Information Officer

Lexington County Council Approves Fiscal Year 2016-2017 $192.5 Million Budget

On Tuesday, Lexington County Council approved the County’s $192.5 million Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2016-2017, with an 8-0 vote.

The Operating Budget is made up of a $65.3 million Special Revenue and Grants Budget, which includes the County’s libraries and Solid Waste department, and the $127.2 million General Fund Budget.

From the General Fund Budget, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department received $43.9 million, while the Lexington County Fire Service received $16.7 million, helping to address personnel needs within both departments.

The County Ordinary Budget received $66.6 million, which will fund Lexington County Emergency Medical Services and other County Administrative offices.

The recent completion of the County’s Community Engagement Survey greatly enhanced Council’s budget process this year, helping them to focus on what the residents said they felt were the most important issues facing the County.

$2.5 million was approved for resurfacing and repairing approximately 15-miles of County-maintained paved roads throughout the County. The budget also includes an additional in-house paving crew, whose primary focus will be paving the County’s dirt roads, and equipment.

The budget also adds one new employee for the Registration Election Commission, and one new employee for the County’s Department of Veterans Affairs.

Creating the budget was an involved and thorough decision-making process for County Council, which included several budget work sessions, three readings and a public hearing.

Since the State General Assembly’s Budget failed to fully fund the Local Government Fund, in accordance with State statute, County Council was forced to create the budget without $4.25 million of state-mandated funds.

So far, Lexington County has lost nearly $24 million in state-mandated funding due to the lack of Local Government funding