SWANSEA, S.C. — The Town of Swansea is working to address finance shortfalls in their budget this year to make sure payrolls are on track.
Last week, council members met for a special called meeting about general funds and how to spend the latest American Rescue Act or ARPA allotment, and to figure out why they have a budget shortfall.
This isn't the first time the town has struggled with finances. As we previously reported, they've had $3.3M worth of assets unaccounted for in their budget from last year.
Councilman Michael Luongo tells News 19 he was shocked to hear their piggy bank is running dry.
"She basically told us we were broke and that we really didn't have any more money to spend anything. They've been looking to spend money on employee bonuses, stuff like that. And we're saying, well if we're broke, how are we going to afford to do it?," Luongo said.
It is unclear what amount of shortfall there is.
Luongo explains the town has already spent a large chunk of the ARPA money they got.
He claims he wasn't told by mayor Viola McDaniel and other town leaders about where all of that money was going before it was used.
News 19 reached out to both mayor McDaniel and the clerk treasurer for this report, and both denied our request for an interview.
Luongo tells News 19 he doesn't understand why they'd need to tap into the money again.
"We've raised our water department's fees 25%, we raised millage rate up, basically we just took those two additions to our revenue stream, we just raised another $150,000 to our revenue stream, even though a lot of that's just now starting to hit our coffers by the way," Luongo said.
Now he explains the options left to keep the town financially running are to use more ARPA money or a municipal loan program that allows a town to obtain funds while anticipating tax income.
But the SC Municipal Association doesn't recommend using ARPA funds for recurring costs.
"That's not something that we would encourage a city or town to do, because those are ongoing expenses that have to be paid, even after the ARPA funds are exhausted," Scott Slatton, SC Municipal Association spokesperson said.
Luongo tells News 19 nothing has been decided yet, but the conversation will be revisited at their next council meeting on November 28, 2022.