Lexington County Council had the third and final reading of the 2025-26 fiscal year budget, finalizing the numbers in time for the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. There is no millage increase.

One councilman, however, voted no during the second and final readings of the budget, saying there should be more funding allocated for road improvements.

“I’d just like to clarify that at the last meeting, I voted ‘no.’ That was a vote based on what I believe was a lack of road money in our budget, and I am certainly in support of salaries and all other departments; I just feel like, in my rural district, the number of road issues we had, I just had to vote no,” Councilman Michael Bishop said at the June 10 meeting during the third and final reading of the budget. “That is the only reason I voted ‘no.’”

Bishop’s District One covers Pelion, Gaston, Swansea, Sandy Run, parts of Edmund and Fairview.

There are over 2,800 miles of publicly maintained roads in the county. 1,555 miles of those are state-maintained, while 1,298 miles of those are county-maintained. And the town of Lexington maintains some of its own roads, too. 700.13 miles of the roads in the county are paved, while 598.23 miles of it are dirt.

According to a county roads pavement condition survey, 62% of county-maintained paved roads are considered good; 33% are considered fair; 6%, or 171 roads, are considered poor or failed.

Lexington County Administrator Lynn Sturkie said earlier this year at a State of the County meeting that at current funding levels, it would take eight years to repave every county road that is considered poor.

“Without more pavement preservation projects, roads that are currently rated as fair will worsen and become poor,” according to Sturkie’s presentation.

He predicts that the number of county roads that are considered poor will grow from 171 to at least 460 within the next seven years.

The county’s 2025-26 approved budget includes $305,250,242 in projected revenues; that’s $204,301,527 in general funds and $100,948,715 in non-general funds.

The last time county council raised the millage was for the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to earlier Chronicle reporting. The 2024-25 budget totaled $300,921,717.

Full budget documents can be found at https://lex-co.sc.gov/departments/finance/budget-documents.

This story was published in the June 19 edition, but did not include budget numbers. This story has been reprinted and updated with some budget numbers and comparisons to previous county budgets.