A capacity crowd was on hand at the Greenville County Council meeting, Tuesday night. The meeting lasted nearly three hours with the public comment portion going over an hour. Driving all of that was the discussion of the proposed budget and tax hikes on homeowners that accompany it.
Prior to voting on the budget's 2nd reading Councilman Steve Shaw proposed amendments to make budget cuts. One of those was funding to the Greenville County Human Relations Commission.
Shaw said that the County spent thousands on rainbow colored umbrellas for the commission to give out as part of their 55th anniversary celebration. The umbrellas seemingly signify the commission's support of gay pride, which the group did have a booth set up at PrideLink SC's recent LGBTQ pride parade in Greenville. The suggestion of cuts to that group by Shaw, was met by a fiery response from Councilman Ennis Fant. Who referred to conservative talk radio as "hate radio shows", saying that Shaw goes on the radio and spreads "hate language to enflame the right". Those comments are at the bottom of this article.
Shaw's suggestion to cut funding to the commission sparked comments from Councilman Ennis Fant regarding conservative talk radio. Shaw's proposed amendments in attempt to make cuts to the budget were also met with opposition from Councilman Chris Harrison, calling it "nickel and dime".
The budget was split into two parts, one for 2024 and one for 2025. Both passed their second reading by an 8-4 vote. The four that voted against it were Stan Tzouvelekas, Steve Shaw, Benton Blount and Joey Russo. All of Shaw's amendments were voted down, as were budget trimming amendments by Stan Tzouvelekas.
An amendment proposed by Councilman Rick Bradley to reduce the tax mills to be used from the original 11 to 7 was approved. The proposed budget will have to pass a third and final reading in the upcoming future. Below you can hear the verbal exchanges between Shaw and Harrison, and Shaw and Fant.