I have been closely following Sullivan’s Island Town Council’s process for creating and approving the fiscal 2027 budget. Budgets are intended to establish detailed fiscal metrics so officials can determine whether actual spending is ahead of or behind projections on a monthly basis. It is simply what one does when budgeting a household and managing a monthly checking account.
Sullivan’s Island Town Council has now been presented with the second reading of the fiscal 2027 budget. Full credit for the preparation of this budget lies with its authors: Mayor Pat O’Neil, Finance Committee Chairwoman Jody Latham, Town Administrator Joe Henderson and Comptroller Jason Blanton.
The 2027 budget, however, is not the product of a strong process and does not reflect an inclusive or transparent approach. Council members are effectively voting for or against the O’Neil-Latham spending plan. In his message to residents, the mayor went to great lengths to applaud Henderson and Blanton for organizing meetings since last October. He said their recommendations then underwent a “hard look” by the mayor and Latham, not the full committee until late in the process.
The town’s “budget process” should be renamed a “spending presentation.” The town has a spending problem that many residents have pointed out for years. Town spending has increased from $4.6 million 11 years ago to roughly $12 million in the proposed 2027 spending plan, despite effectively the same number of residential homes during that time. Virtually every item proposed is measured against last year’s budget rather than actual town spending, and nowhere in the presentation is there a chart comparing what council budgeted versus what the town actually spent. In my 50 years of career budgeting, I have never seen that approach.
When Comptroller Blanton was asked during the March 11 Finance Committee review about proposed spending increases from 2026, his initial response was that the town has the legal authority under South Carolina law to increase the property tax millage rate to balance the budget. Although Blanton has since said there will be no increase, that response should raise concerns that no one is managing the town’s finances as carefully as they would their own checkbook.
A comptroller should be vigilant about wasteful and unnecessary spending, requiring justification from every department head and pursuing a zero-based budgeting approach. A town administrator should ask the same questions. The mayor and Finance Committee chair should do the same.
Budget season began in October. The full Finance Committee reviewed the fiscal 2027 proposal on March 11, 2026. Its final vote, which was not unanimous for the first time in 10 years, took place March 30. What role did the full committee play between October and March?
The full Town Council’s first and second readings of the budget are behind us, so it appears likely that the June 16 O’Neil-Latham spending presentation will pass, though not unanimously. Yet the proposal remains devoid of detailed line-item spending, return-on-investment analysis for capital expenditures, and narrative explanations from department heads about why spending is necessary from the first dollar forward.
If we are as proud of our fiscal discipline as we are of our island, we deserve a better process.
The town’s budget process is broken. It fails to produce a final document that adequately justifies proposed expenditures and leaves council members without the tools to track performance monthly. Thorough and transparent budgeting is standard practice in well-run businesses and nonprofits. What has been presented by town leadership is little more than, “This is what we budgeted last year, and this is what we’d like to add this year.”
The proposed budget reflects a decade-long trend suggesting that more spending is not necessarily smarter spending. Without line-item monthly reports comparing actual spending to council-approved budgets, meaningful prioritization becomes impossible because every expense is treated equally.
Last November, voters called for smarter spending and greater transparency. Sullivan’s Island residents need to be more vocal about accountability for taxpayer dollars. I have been, but with that comes a responsibility to propose solutions, not merely point fingers.
I plan to send Town Council members a proposal for a reengineered budgeting process for next year. It is simple: justify every dollar from the first dollar, begin the budgeting process in July for the following fiscal year, and hold detailed public reviews with department heads to categorize expenditures into three groups: core services, nice-to-haves, and fully discretionary spending.
We owe it to the town to be better stewards of taxpayer dollars through a transparent process rich in detail. Many residents, myself included, are willing to serve as resources for Town Council. All I ask is for a public process to defend the spend.
I am proud to live on Sullivan’s Island, and I believe better days are ahead for our town.
Peter C. Alexander