Sumter County Council Chairman Jim McCain: School district has money necessary to accomplish its goals

I am a product of public schools in Sumter.

Both of my parents were educators. Both taught here in Sumter and instilled within me at an early age the importance of education.

And my time serving this community on Sumter County Council has further solidified how crucial education is in moving us forward.

I stand on my voting record of supporting specific needs that have been brought to council by Sumter School District.

And I will continue to support Sumter School District's retention efforts 100%. We've seen too many teachers leave us for other districts and communities, and we need to reverse that trend.

I'm proud to represent the constituents of District 6, and all of us on county council are responsible to the 104,000-plus residents of Sumter County. I hear from my constituents all the time how they are burdened with taxes.

For the small businesses in our community that rent or lease space - and there are many - this increase will be compounded even more and passed on to the consumer.

Every day, chain businesses make decisions to open new locations around our state, and we've been told time and time again a large factor is the comparison of our property tax rates versus rates in other communities.

Don't think Target, Olive Garden and Publix won't pay attention to property tax increases.

Again, I will state I completely support the schools' efforts to employ and retain quality teachers. However, I personally believe the funds exist in their current revenue stream to accomplish the tasks that they have outlined for Fiscal Year 2023-24.

Based on information provided by Sumter School District, they will receive an additional $10.6 million in state revenues over 2023, which includes an additional $2.3 million in Tier 3 funds, which is revenue tax offset money from local residential exemptions.

According to their own external audit report for the fiscal year ending 2022, and I quote, "In reviewing the fund balance of the School District, it may be useful to analyze the unassigned fund balance of the School District to determine the adequacy of the fund balance at June 30, 2022. The unassigned fund balance for the general fund totals $39,547,762."

Per Act 23 of 2017 S.C. Code 59-20-90, South Carolina school districts are required by law to maintain a general reserve fund of at least one month of general fund operating expenditures. At June 30, 2022, the minimum required fund balance is approximately $10.3 million. Industry best practices recommend that general-purpose governments have two months' worth of expenditures in unassigned fund balance as a minimum, especially during periods of economic uncertainty.

At June 30, 2022, Sumter School District has approximately four months of unassigned fund balance in the general fund (approximately 32% of expenditures), two months above this recommended two-month minimum."

This is how the school district has been able to build its current fund balance.

Since 2016 when the ending fund balance was $106,449, this is how they have built their fund balance to the current levels. In 2017, they added $779,230. In 2018, $7.7 million. In 2019, $5.7 million. In 2020, $11 million. In 2021, $7.7 million. In 2022, $9 million.

Since the time the school district was placed on fiscal watch by the state Department of Education, the school district - to its credit - has easily exceeded the three-month mandate imposed on the school district at the time. The school district has since been removed from fiscal watch by the state.

Much like the operations of local government, the school district grew its fund balance due primarily to budgeted employee vacancies, which account for salary and benefit savings.

Based on their own figures of having over 100 teacher vacancies in 2023, the school district should safely anticipate a surplus between $5 million and $7 million to add to its current fund balance at the end of fiscal year 2023 ending on June 30, 2023.

In the initial budget request presented to council on June 6, 2023, in the salary line items of the budget, the FY 2024 proposed budget was $88,343,595. On June 19, 2023, at the first-ever joint meeting of county council and Sumter school board, council was presented an amended budget request with those same line items totaling $91,563,468, an increase of $3,219,873. Which is more than the amount that the requested 12.75 mills represent.

I believe the funds are there within the current budget to accomplish their stated goals for fiscal year 2023/2024 by utilizing a small portion of their fund balance, just like the City of Sumter and Sumter County Government have been doing for several years to balance their budgets.

If I did not truly believe, based on the Sumter School District's own financial statements and previous year's audit, that the district has the funds necessary to accomplish their goals, I would be the first to vote for a millage increase.

Jim McCain is chairman of Sumter County Council and represents District 6.