Hopkinsville Mayor Carter Hendricks proposed a $36.7 million balanced budget Friday and says he will recommend a property tax rate increase and multiple cuts to pay the increased pension liability.
During his annual budget address, Hendricks says the budget includes no cost of living increases for city employees, no special projects, a four percent cut to departments and a five percent cut to agencies. He says those cuts come because of an increased pension cost of approximately $500,000 from the state, which the City of Hopkinsville is required to pay.
That pension cost is only going to go up unless something changes at the state level—it could be $3.3 million by 2024. Hendricks says that’s also why he’s recommending the 2019-2020 budget include a four percent increase in property tax revenue, though he says they won’t know until August how exactly that would impact the rates.
He says the increase would bring in about $110,000 in increased revenue. His budget proposal shows that the City of Hopkinsville has a projected growth to the payroll tax of one percent and a growth of 1.5 percent to the insurance premium tax.
The mayor says a committee will be forming soon that will examine what impacts the pension crisis will continue to have on Hopkinsville and recommend options to meet that burden.
The budget includes $47,722 for an additional public safety officer at the Hopkinsville Police Department, $100,573 for STEP increases for city employees and $46,539 for the Hopkinsville Sportsplex deficit. Hendricks calls that number for the Sportsplex a victory, because it was originally projected to be $200,000 when the building was first constructed.
The Committee of the Whole will review the budget proposal Thursday evening at 6 p.m.