Welcome

Message from our Mayor, the Honorable Danny P. Funderburk:

Thank you for your interest in the Town of Fort Mill. We have established this website to provide you with a variety of information and useful services. Please feel free to explore the website and provide us with any questions or comments you may have.

Fort Mill is a wonderful town located along the I-77 corridor in the northernmost part of South Carolina. We are one of the fastest growing communities in the state for a lot of reasons. Residents of the town enjoy a high quality of life and a strong sense of community. The Fort Mill Schools are among the best in the state and perform well above national standards. We also are home to a number of thriving businesses and corporate offices. Our close proximity to the Charlotte metropolitan area provides numerous educational, recreational and employment opportunities. Our town staff does an excellent job of providing a clean and safe environment for our residents.

Once again, thank you for visiting our site. If you need assistance that is not available here, please go to the Contacts page and consult the appropriate department or staff member.

Danny P. Funderburk
Mayor
dfunderburk@fortmillsc.org

Mayor Funderburk's Website

2009-2010 BUDGET INFORMATION

The following are comments made by our Mayor, Danny Funderburk regarding the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Budget:

The Fort Mill Town Council has been proud of the fact that we haven’t been forced to raise our millage rate in 14 years. We were able to do this mainly because of our tremendous growth rate and the generally excellent state of our economy over this period. Fort Mill's construction build-up generated building permits, business licenses and, of course, steadily rising property values.  These revenue streams were sufficient to meet our service and infrastructure needs and prevent us from having to raise taxes. But, as we’re all aware, the construction build-up has been over for over a year and a half. Those revenue streams have significantly decreased.

The Town of Fort Mill is facing the same economic pressures as our residents.  Fuel costs, health insurance, all of the costs of doing business hit The Town just as they do small businesses, just as they do households. The hard truth is that a weakening dollar has less purchasing power and almost everything is costing more.  Duke Power, for the first time in a decade, has even promised us an electricity rate hike this year, it will even cost more to keep the street lights on.

Furthermore, our citizens expect us to maintain a high standard with the provision of police, fire, water, sewer, streets and sanitation services. This requires the addition of people and upgrades in equipment. Concurrently, our citizens also expect us to be forward thinking with The Town’s projects like the new Fire sub-station, the relocation of the court and components of our downtown revitalization. 

We must be properly funded to make this happen. A careful scrubbing of the budget has eliminated employee raises for Fiscal Year 2010 and removed a part-time utility clerk’s position. We took out the originally proposed garbage increase, the Wi-Fi for the downtown and the funding for the GASB 45 liability. As is the trend with most municipal and county governments, we’re lease-purchasing wherever possible in order to defer some of our costs until the economy improves. Unfortunately, all of this won’t be enough to balance our budget.

The SC state legislature recognized the necessity of allowing local governments to raise taxes and fees to meet additional costs brought on through growth and inflation. Act 388 allows the town to increase millage to offset these costs. Our permitted increase this year was over 8 mills, which is more than the proposed 5 mill increase.

At the end of it all…we still find it necessary to increase our millage by 5 mills. This still leaves us with the lowest municipal tax rate in York County. With all municipal fees considered, the Town of Fort Mill continues to be one of the most economical places to live in the region. By approving the budget as proposed, Town Council is making the commitment to our residents to adequately fund the services and amenities that make Fort Mill the quality community that our residents have come to expect.

To view the proposed FY2010 Budget, please click here.

To view the Town Manager's Budget Presentation, please click here.

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