It was many months late, but the Town of Swansea passed a 2021-22 budget on May 23.

The budget, which was backdated to take effect July 1, 2021, sets expected general fund revenue at $623,836 (up from $622,574 the previous fiscal year) and alots total expenses of $270,078 for administration (up from $273,484) and $353,758 for the police department (up from $349,089). 

The expenses and revenue for water/sewer and street maintenance are balanced at $748,535 and $50,000, respectively. The amount for water/sewer was down from $791,000, while the amount for street maintenance was flat compared to the previous fiscal year.

“This budget was long overdue and should have been passed in 2021,” the town posted to its Facebook page. “We are grateful to those who came out to the public budget hearing and the general meeting.”

Passing a budget has been a topic of conversation — and a point of conflict among Town Council — since last year, when Jerald Sanders was removed as mayor after being indicted for misconduct in office and accused of siphoning more than $4,500 from the town to his personal charity. 

Getting a handle on the town’s finances and passing a budget, at that point already months late, was a key issue in the fall’s four-candidate mayoral race that resulted in Viola McDaniel taking the open seat.

“We are obviously many months into the fiscal year. So that has challenges. You certainly aren’t able to use the budget in a way that would typically be used as a planning document,” the MRB Group’s Mat Horn told council during a public hearing before their unanimous vote to accept the budget. The municipal service firm helped the town assemble the budget.

“It also has benefits in that we’re able to use live data,” Horn added. “We prepared this budget during the month of April. So we had live data through March 31.”

Council will now turn quickly to approach the budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

“Hopefully, this will be done sometime in July,” the town posted to its Facebook page about passing the new budget.