Landing Southwest is already paying off for Greenville

By Cindy Landrum  

MAY 19, 2010 11:29 a.m. (0)

Southwest Airlines'  announcement last week that it would begin service to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport within the next year without any government incentives enabled the City Council to chop a proposed solid waste fee increase nearly in half.

On Monday night, the Greenville City Council voted to approve on first reading a budget that calls for solid waste fees to increase from $8.50 per month per household to $11.50.

City Manager Jim Bourey’s original budget recommended solid waste fees rise to $14 per month. After the Southwest announcement, he recommended to council it use $360,848 in accommodations tax money to pay for items related to special events and tourism that otherwise would come out of the general fund. That money would then be used to cut the solid waste fee.

The accommodations tax money had been in excess of what the city needed to pay bonds for the Bi-Lo Center and had been put in a special fund to woo Southwest Airlines.

The council, however, decided to lower the proposed solid waste rate increase even more by cutting other things in the budget.

Councilman David Sudduth told council members in a work session prior to the vote he was concerned using the money to fund the gap in the budget would delay the inevitable.

He also said he was concerned using the accommodations tax money would prevent the city from funding projects in the future.

Sudduth proposed reducing the city manager’s contingency fund from $235,000 to $50,000, a $50,000 cut in the city’s budget office’s professional services money, suspending community center capital projects for 2011 to free up $100,000 and reduce vehicle and equipment replacements by $100,000.

He also proposed suspending employee longevity bonuses for 2011 to save $200,000. The city pays employees 1 percent of their salary at five-year intervals. The city received a tremendous amount of “push-back” when the longevity bonus was moved to a different section of the employee handbook and employees incorrectly thought they wouldn’t receive the money.

Employees count on the bonus and haven’t had merit salary increases for two years, Bourey said.

Sudduth countered by saying at companies throughout Greenville, employees are not only not getting merit increases, they are taking salary cuts as well.

The council decided to include $200,000 in accommodations tax money in the budget and keep the employee longevity bonuses.

The proposed budget also includes $104,120 to pay for two school resource officers. The city had wanted the school district to pay for them, but the school district’s budget is in worse shape than the city’s.

Second reading of the budget is scheduled for May 24.

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