Hopkinsville Mayor Carter Hendricks gave his annual budget address Friday morning, proposing a balanced $36.5 million spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that would not include any new taxes.
The budget projects payroll growth slightly lower than the last couple years and it doesn’t require bringing in any prior year revenues to balance the books.
Mayor Hendricks says the budget-making process was made much less painful when the General Assembly capped the maximum contribution local governments would have to pay into the pension systems.
An extra $66,500 is being placed into street paving and $15,000 would be contributed to the four-county Fort Campbell Strong Defense Alliance that advocates for the local post and its economic impact to the region.
The mayor’s budget would create two new full-time street maintenance worker positions, facility coordinator and event specialist positions at the sportsplex, a groundskeeper position for the Parks and Recreation Department and two par-time city administration receptionist positions.
Thirty-eight percent of the budget is going to payroll and 12-percent to retirement contribution. Almost 60-percent of the budget would go to pay for police, ECC, the fire department and public works.
The $1.5 million proposed capital budget includes the $548,000 payment on bonds for the downtown Municipal Center and renovated Hopkinsville Police Department building, regular costs for rotating in new police cruisers and $25,000 for improvements at the playground at DeBow Park.
In other notable news, the mayor announced there will be an ice rink downtown on the weekend of this year’s Christmas parade.
Click here to view the entire budget address.