Allendale County Council delivers update on tire plant, approves second reading of budget

At its regular August 15 meeting, the Allendale County Council gave updates on the state of the Tin Thanh Group Americas’ tire factory project and approved the second reading of the FY25 budget, among other things.

Tire plant financing

When the Tin Thanh Group Americas’ tire factory project was announced in March 2023, it claimed to be bringing $68 million in investment and 1,031 jobs and that “operations are expected to be online by September 2024.”

The project’s original funder was Acuity Funding, an Australian infrastructure finance provider. However, at the meeting, Connelly said that the project has been delayed because Tin Thanh Group Americas lost funding.

“I’m happy to say now they have a new source of financing in place, [and] they have provided enough to South Carolina [Department of] Commerce that they have extended their incentive package until the end of the year,” Connelly said. “If they want to stay in good graces with [the Department of] Commerce, they will start some type of construction or site work by the end of the year. We're hoping and praying that that comes to fruition.”

Connelly did not say at the meeting what the new funder of the project was, and did not respond to several requests for comment.

Second reading of FY25 budget

The council approved the second reading of its proposed budget for the Fiscal Year 2024–25. Since June, the council has been operating on its Fiscal Year 2023–24 budget, which was extended indefinitely to give the council more time to work on the FY25 budget. In June, council chair Connelly said he hoped that the budget would be completed by the end of July.

The second reading of the FY25 budget shows an increase in general fund revenues for the county from the first reading, and the FY24 budget, rising from $5,837,070 in FY24 to $9,511,773 in the first reading of the FY25 budget to $10,222,056 in the second reading of the FY25 budget. This increase is mostly due to new fees in lieu of tax revenues and real estate tax revenues.

Many of the budget requests from departments have been cut back. This includes the Voter Registration and Elections Office, the clerk of court, the circuit court, the probate court, the magistrate’s office, the tax assessor, EMS, public works, the animal shelter, the sheriff’s department, the fire department and nutrition programs. The largest cuts have been to the public works department, which requested $4,033,303 and received $1,455,171.

However, the second reading of the budget also includes increases in funding for departments like information technology, the tax collector and the coroner.

Other items

• Council member Bill Robinson said Allendale County has lost its classification as a lower middle income county; this could threaten its ability to apply for funding that lower middle income counties receive
• Council chair Matthew Connelly said the town has put the $4.5 million the town received in funding for renovating the C.V. Bing High School in an interest bearing account. The interest accrued, Connelly said, has been used to pay “fees that are related to the project.”

Elijah de Castro is a Report for America corps member who writes about rural communities like Allendale and Barnwell counties for The People-Sentinel. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep Elijah writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today.