Greenville County debates impact of road funding increase on schools, cities
An effort to increase funding for road maintenance projects and its impact on other local government budgets occupied much of Greenville County Council’s focus during a budget workshop May 12.
At issue was how the county will fund a roughly $43 million line item for road maintenance out of its $488.5 million proposed budget for fiscal year 2025-2026.
In a draft budget presented to council May 6, county Administrator Joe Kernell explained a significant portion of the road funding increase would come through the county retaining nearly double the amount of income it previously received from fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements. The county shares that fee revenue with other county taxing entities – including municipalities and Greenville County Schools.
During the work session, several council members said they received calls from school board members expressing concern that the school district was being “blindsided” by such a significant reduction in the amount of money it receives from FILOT payments — a loss of about $8 million.
Kernell said given council’s stated target of about $40 million annually for road maintenance and the county’s extremely limited control on the revenue it receives, the logical choice was to consider holding onto a higher percentage of FILOT revenue.
Kernell said his administration was in the process of preparing a detailed assessment of the impact of increasing the percentage of FILOT payments the county retains from 39% to about 60% in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
He further explained that a portion of the proposed increase in the road maintenance budget for 2025-2026 comes from a near-doubling of road funding from the state — about $11.6 million next year versus an average of about $3 million to $6 million annually in recent years.
Councilman Curt McGahhey (District 21) questioned the significance of an $8 million reduction to the school district’s proposed $962 million budget for the coming fiscal year.
In the ensuing discussion, council Chairman Benton Blount (District 19) floated the idea of holding off a year in changing FILOT payments to give other recipients, including Greenville County Schools, more time to plan accordingly.
Blount encouraged council members to gather more information and feedback before the next work session, which may be as soon as next week.
Greenville County Council is tentatively scheduled to introduce the 2025-2026 budget during its May 20 meeting.
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