Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office requests nearly $32 million to fight crime

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is asking county leaders to approve a nearly $32 million operating budget for the upcoming 2017 fiscal year.

That total is roughly $1.4 million more than the Sheriff’s Office requested last year.

A large portion of that increase would go toward hiring eight new patrol officers and two new investigators.

Suzanne Cook, financial officer for the Sheriff’s Office, said half of those new deputies and investigators will be assigned to Hilton Head Island.

The agency is in negotiations with island officials to come up with an agreement to reimburse the county in the amount of roughly $700,000 if those new officers are hired.

The other new officers would be deployed in the area of the county north of the Broad River, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said.

The Sheriff’s Office funding request, which was presented to Beaufort County Council’s Finance Committee Monday, also includes items on the agency’s capital projects sales tax wish list.

Those are projects put forth by local governments and organizations, that, if ultimately approved by both the County Council and county voters, would add a penny of sales tax to every dollar spent in Beaufort County.

If the sales tax hike is approved and Hilton Head Island reimburses the county for its potential new officers, the Sheriff’s Office budget would only grow by about $1 million in fiscal year 2017, Cook said.

Tanner told the committee that the new officers are needed “because the (population) growth in this county has been tremendous both south of the Broad (River) and north of the (river).”

Resources are split about evenly between the two portions of the county, he said.

Beaufort County deputy administrator Josh Gruber said if the Sheriff’s Office refunding request is ultimately approved, the administration will work to ensure “a minimal amount of overall (budget) adjustment.”

The goal is to minimize property tax increases, he said.

To balance the proposed budget for all county operations, property taxes would likely go up by about 5 percent next fiscal year.

For owners who live full-time in houses valued at the county’s median of $265,000, that means an extra $21.62 in annual property tax payments.

Owners of second homes, which are taxed at a higher rate than primary homes, would pay $32.44 more.

The full county budget, including the Sheriff’s Office requests, will be introduced to the full council at its first meeting in May.

At that point, “we will another look at where things are,” Councilman Jerry Stewart said.

The Finance Committee will continue to discuss the overall proposed budget and potentially propose amendments over the next month.

The 2017 fiscal year begins July 1.

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office requests nearly $32 million to fight crime."