Horry County is in the middle of figuring out how to spend your tax dollars. Lawmakers are determining out how to spend and save with their budget by hearing from all county departments.
The county's public safety committee met Tuesday to talk about the budget. The past few years have been tight for Horry county. For 2012, it's a little bit better, but it's still about being lean.
Last year's budget was $327 million dollars. This year's is expected to be close to that. Among some of the biggest pieces of the pie requested at the public safety committee meeting: $17 million requested by the Horry County Police Department and and $13.5 million for Horry County Fire Rescue.
To get that much money, they need more property tax money, part of which comes from new construction.
Horry County Spokesman Lisa Bourcier says that after the economy tanked a few years ago, this is the first time they're seeing some growth that rivals what it was like in 2004.
"We've actually seen a very good month or two of building permits actually on the increase, so there is a little bit of a tick, but until that revenue starts to come back and a lot of those property taxes start to increase we won't be able to grow government," she says.
Think of this like a pie though, and every department wants a piece. So when gas costs are on the way up and grants run out, some organizations are left going to the county hoping for more.
For example, the county Veteran's Affairs Office needs about $219,000 to help veterans with aid and benefits. Right now, they've only been promised about $6,000 thousand from the state, Public Safety Director Paul Whitten said at the meeting.
"If all of a sudden fuel increases and we're starting to see that, line items start to grow and we got to cut somewhere else. So it's really up to the department heads to stay within their budget," Bourcier says.
The county council's budget retreat starts April 25th.
