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Assessor explains smaller operating budget, describes separate evaluation fund and 2% statutory allocation
Summary
Berkeley County Assessor Larry Hess said his operating budget dropped about $46,000 from the prior year due to retirements and reassignments, described multiple revenue streams including a separate evaluation fund and a statutory 2% allocation tied to reevaluation, and asked for consideration of employee pay increases to improve retention.
Assessor Larry Hess told the Board of Commissioners his department’s operating budget for the coming fiscal year is lower than last year by roughly $46,000, chiefly because a higher‑paid employee retired and was replaced at a lower salary and because several staff departures created temporary savings.
Hess said his personnel-service line (salaries and related costs) fell as open positions and lower-paid replacements reduced projected expenditures; he noted he increased the overtime line modestly because fewer employees required more overtime coverage. He described total personnel-service projections and a separate evaluation fund that pays many assessor salaries: that evaluation fund, he said, is expected to be about $1.4 million in the coming cycle and is derived from a statutory allocation established after a countywide reevaluation in the early 1990s. Hess explained that the legislation tied assessors to an allocation of up to 2% of certain budgets to support reevaluation work and related staffing; he said the evaluation fund supplements the operating account and that he uses both streams to cover salaries and operational expenses when needed.
Hess said he typically budgets for 12–16 positions across accounts and that at the time of the meeting he had recently hired one person and expected one more to fill counter coverage during busy months. He said starting wages for new hires in the assessor’s office recently rose to about $35 an hour (approximately $35,600 annually by his estimate) and he expressed interest in raising lower-end salaries toward $40,000 to improve retention. Hess told commissioners he intends to prioritize filling counter positions by July, which he identified as a peak period for public demand.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about how the two revenue streams operate and how the evaluation fund is audited; Hess said the evaluation fund is a separate account audited through the auditor’s office and historically tied to state monitoring (he referenced a panel he called “PVC” that reviews assessors’ work). Hess said he tries to keep the county-funded portion of his budget low when the evaluation fund can backfill line items, and he said the arrangement has been in place since the early 1990s.
No formal vote was taken on salary adjustments at the session; commissioners indicated they were aware employees have not received a pay increase for three years and said they would consider salary decisions during the broader budget review.
