Surfside Beach leaders accept about $100K in budget cuts, agree to lease police vehicles

SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Surfside Beach Town Council on Friday accepted about $100,000 in budget cuts and agreed to switch from purchasing to leasing police department vehicles, according to mayor Rob Krouse’s weekly newsletter.

This comes about a month after a proposed budget was submitted to the town to fill a $1.8 million gap by freezing three firefighter positions that were approved in the 2024 fiscal year budget.

Town Administrator Gerald Vincent also said he turned down requests to hire four firefighters and five part-time firefighters and “unfunded” the deputy chief position.

The town saved about $111,000 with the leasing move. It also stayed with a 4-mill proposed property tax increase and restructured the proposed pay increases for employees.

Krouse said the $111,000 savings due to leasing along with the 4-mill property tax increase will reduce the required transfer from H-tax to about $218,000 instead of the previously planned $330,000.

There was a proposal to change the tax increase to 6-mills to reduce the likelihood of another increase next year, but according to Krouse, the council voted to maintain the 4-mill increase adopted last week specifically to address the fire department “shortfalls.”

To this point, the main budget plan is about $10.9 million, with personnel cost accounting for almost $7.4 million of that, Krouse said. Only about $4.2 million of that total is derived from property taxes, even with the 4-mill increase factored in.

The grand opening of the pier, which had a “soft” opening in March, was not addressed because it’s part of the 2023-2024 budget and was planned more than a year ago, Krouse said. It will be next discussed in the town’s regular council meeting on May 28.

Krouse also expressed a need for the town to be strategic in its approach to generating income, saying it needs to promote the town and invest in it.

“Yesterday’s [Thursday] budget review showed that property taxes covers about 39% of the town’s expenses, even with the millage increase. We need to increase A- and H-tax revenues in the long term; we need to continually build interest outside of the traditional peak season,” Krouse said. “The same circumstances create a climate to attract businesses, which can produce additional business license income. That revenue currently covers almost 17% of our expenses; considering the vacant buildings we have, there is considerable opportunity for improvement and increased business interest would do more to revitalize Business 17 than any other idea presented to date.”

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Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here .

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