More infighting is likely as the Swansea Town Council looks forward to a public hearing and first reading of a new budget for the year.

The town scheduled a public hearing before it was set to take up the budget proposal at a meeting set for July 25. Mayor Viola McDaniel later told the Chronicle she was unable to attend the meeting and that the public hearing and first reading  of the budget.

Council spent most of the 2021-22 fiscal year using the same spending plan as the previous year before passing a 2021-22 budget May 23, backdated to take effect July 1, 2021.

That budget was nearly a year late when it was passed. If council passes the new budget in short order, it would get close to getting the town’s financial planning back on schedule.

But Councilman Michael Luongo said he has “a lot of questions” about the budget process, especially after an audit found the town’s assets had dropped in value by some $3 million.

He also expressed concerns that the millage rate would go up 15% and water costs would go up 25%.

“I want to meet with the auditor,” he said.

Luongo said the budget appears to be focused on spending instead of saving.

Councilwoman Doris Simmons shared the same concerns.

The proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget posted online shows expenditures totaling $567,942, considerably higher than the previous year total of $279,381. The budget shows revenues totaling $1,727,163 for 2023, compared to $1,423,173 on the budget for 2022.

The budget shows a major “transfer from town revenue” funds totaling $296,600 to the police department. The department would receive a total of $398,200, according to the budget. In 2022, the department was only allocated a total of $85,000.

Simmons and Luongo complained in a recent letter to Mayor Viola McDaniel that last year’s budget was “fraudulent, plagued by errors, miscalculations and a lack of foresight.”

The two council members have been at odds with the mayor and council members Linda Butler and Jerome Williams about the budget.

CPA John E. Brown cited several problems with the finance information that he was provided, asserting that it was impossible to provide an accurate audit.

Money problems were also under scrutiny when former Swansea Mayor Jerald Sanders was indicted by a state grand jury in July of last year, accused of taking public money and transferring it to an account that he managed. The Lexington County Grand Jury indicted Sanders on charges of embezzlement of public funds. He was subsequently suspended from office by Gov. Henry McMaster.

The case has yet to go to trial.