Clarendon city budget holds line on taxes, fees

The Clarendon City Council is holding the line on taxes and fees as it prepares to hold a public hearing on its proposed $2.126 million budget for fiscal year 2018 during a regular session this Thursday, August 24.

The budget is about 9.6 percent lower than the current budget due largely to drainage improvements done on Third Street in the current fiscal year.

“We had about $341,000 on street repairs in fiscal year 2017,” City Administrator David Dockery said, “but now we are planning no extensive street repairs until the USDA-funded water system project is completed.”

Dockery said no service fee increases are proposed in the new budget, and the city intends to adopt the effective tax rate, which will bring in the same tax revenue as this year and yet lower the actual tax rate by about one penny per $100 valuation. The new tax rate will be $0.733821, and the city expects to receive about $260,000 in ad valorem taxes.

City employees will receive a 2.5 percent raise under the new budget, but they will be required to pick up about ten percent of their health insurance premiums going forward. Previously, the city paid the entire cost of employee premiums.

The budget includes $17,000 earmarked to help replace storm sirens on the east and west sides of town. Funds are also set aside for $25,000 worth of improvements to City Hall as the first phase of a three-year plan to bring the 1918 municipal building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.