PICKENS COUNTY — Efforts by the General Assembly to cut local funding could deal a heavy blow to Pickens County’s economy – and could result in higher taxes.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed a 42 percent cut to Aids to Local Subdivision funding last month, County Administrator J. Chappell Hurst told County Council Monday.

The efforts countermand an earlier law passed to allow counties stability in regards to the amount of Aid to Subdivision funding they could expect, Hurst said.

That law stated counties would receive 4.5 percent of the state’s general fund, he said.

“So if the state general fund, you get a little more, if it goes down, you get a little less,” Hurst said.

Under that law, a special act of the legislature would be required to do away with that bill.

“They’ve already brought a bill out of subcommittee, so they can cut that out,” Hurst said.

Should that 42 percent cut be approved, Pickens County stands to lose $3 million.

“$3 million is a lot of money,” Hurst said. “In millage turns, it’s about 7 mills.”

Hurst said county officials have been working for the past 18 months to bring a budget to council for approval that includes no tax increases, by combining jobs and allowing jobs to remain open once vacated.

Such a large cut in expected funding puts that balanced, tax-increase free budget in jeopardy, he said.

“If this passes, the people that vote for it are, in essence, enacting a tax on the people back home in Pickens County,” Hurst said.

“It’s very difficult to put together a budget when you’re dependent on somebody else,” he said.

Complicating matters is the fact that aid to subdivision monies are often given to counties by the legislature to fund programs mandated by the legislature.

Those services include the magistrate’s office, the Department of Social Services, Veterans Affairs and the Voter Registration Office, Hurst said.

“When they take monies away from us, how do they expect us to provide for people to properly vote, if they don’t have the money or if it doesn’t come from local citizens?” Hurst said. “It really puts the counties in a bad situation.”

Cities also depend on Aid to Local Subdivision funding, Hurst said.

“We’ve got cities that are in a bad time right now and they need this funding,” he said.

Hurst said he hopes the Pickens County Legislative Delegation will “support us and not cut these funds.”

“It’s one thing to reduce it, but it’s another to cut it beyond where it was for the last 12-13 years,” he said.