A group of Travelers Rest citizens are alleging constitutional violations by the Greenville County Council. The claims include that the county council has used technical loopholes to violate the state constitution by adopting a bi-annual budget rather than the required annual budget. Other claims involve council members holding closed-door meetings, violating South Carolina’s open meetings law under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). “One of the main focuses of this lawsuit and a lot of others like it, is it requires our public officials to follow the law. We have good laws. The problem is, our public officials are not as faithful and diligent as they should be with following the laws,” said SCPIF’s principal attorney, Jim Carpenter.
What’s the violation?
The state constitution requires that the county adopt a budget every year, but Greenville County has been budgeting bi-annually for approximately ten years. “They have no idea in the next fiscal year whether their revenue is what they projected and what adjustments they need to make because their budget for the upcoming year is already based on an estimate from two years ago,” explained attorney Robert Childs. “So, it doesn’t foster good fiscal management.”
As Rep. Mike Burns told Greenville News, “The problem with the two-year budget is it’s both unconstitutional and against state law.” South Carolina’s Constitution (Section 7, Article X) states that each political subdivision in the state “shall prepare and maintain annual budgets,” while section 4-9-140 of South Carolina’s Code of Laws explicitly states that Council Council should adopt capital budgets “annually and prior to the beginning of the fiscal year operating.” Once budgets are passed, the county’s financial management doesn’t improve. Their own audit says their financial records are not up to governmental accounting standards, making it nearly impossible to find out if the county is spending according to the adopted budgets. There is no supplemental appropriations process when the county wants to spend money that was appropriated for another purpose, something that is common in other counties, The administrator simply approves or declines the expenditures, even without the council’s approval.
It’s hard for the voters of Greenville County to know what happens at their county council meetings because sometimes a quorum of council members meets behind closed doors, which violates the Open Meetings Law under FOIA. Some council members are upset about that. Last
summer, the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets were passed, and they included something the county hasn’t seen in nearly 30 years—seven mill tax increases. That was passed by a majority of the council without public notice, which is a clear violation. Some of those council members
were voted out in November; so more council members are ready to shake up the status quo.
That’s also when SCPIF filed our initial suit.
Next Steps
Opposing counsel has delayed depositions for over a year, but the citizens will have their voices heard. We hope some of our motions can be decided in summary judgment, without a full trial, because they are so blatantly unconstitutional.
That’s why this case is important to all of South Carolina, Childs explained. “It sets a bad example for all local governments. The spending habits of Greenville County affect everybody if they’re allowed to do it, and so a lot of other, smaller counties will follow what big counties do. Everybody ought to be interested in that.”