SWANSEA, S.C. — The Town of Swansea said they've finally balanced their budget that was due about four months ago before the July first deadline.
We reported back in August that the town administrator said the town couldn't do this because of over $200K missing in utility bills.
Christine Keefer, the town administrator explained that there were inconsistencies with billings and incomes, as well as meter issues and no utility department head.
Today, the mayor said that budget is now balanced.
"During a budget balance, you have to match your expenses to your revenue. You can project, but you don't need to project way over what you don't have coming in, so sometimes you have to reduce your spending and reduce your expenses and income. So basically that's what we did," Viola McDaniel, Swansea mayor said.
McDaniel said the town still has some issues in its water department with delinquent accounts, but that they are "working on that."
She said the problems with these accounts began back during the start of COVID when the town could not cut off water or electric and had to be more lenient with people paying their water bills.
Now, and since then, McDaniel said people have been catching up on their payments.
The total balanced budget of around $2.3M is what McDaniel said will be approved later this month.
She said the town plans to pass the budget at their next council meeting on October 28, 2024. The public hearing for that meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.