Hopkinsville City Council approved an increase to the business license tax at Tuesday night’s meeting and enacted a ‘payment in lieu of taxes’ levy against HWEA to create new revenue to meet rising pension costs over the next several years.
The business license tax was elevated to 1.95% and there is no longer a cap on the maximum tax liability for businesses. There has been a $10,000 maximum tax liability on net profits. The payment in lieu of taxes’ levy toward HWEA is for 2 percent on revenues from water and wastewater services in the city. While that action would not directly be paid by the customers, its possible HWEA could pass that cost along on monthly bills.
Council members Terry Parker, Tom Johnson, Jimmy Dossett and Jason Bell voted against both ordinances and Councilman Paul Henson voted against the HWEA PILOT.
While the Future Funding and Pension Committee’s recommendations have been public and well-publicized, the two ordinances approved Tuesday night by council were not on the agenda, in the packet provided to media, or on the City of Hopkinsville website prior to first reading.
Council scheduled a special-called meeting for Thursday at 5:30 to hear second reading of the ordinances. Councilman Phillip Brooks explained he wanted the special meeting to allow Councilman Wendell Lynch to vote on the ordinances again before he is sworn in as mayor on Sunday afternoon at 2 at the War Memorial Building. Lynch chaired the committee that drafted the recommendations.
Chairman Lynch says while Tuesday night’s action doesn’t raise property taxes, the committee’s recommendation of raising those rates to create four-percent in new revenues will have to be addressed later this year.
Councilmember Johnson says he voted no against the increases because he believes that raising taxes doesn’t make practical sense in this circumstance.
If city council had taken no action and if the city only experiences minimal revenue growth outside of any tax increases, projections show there would be significant budget shortfalls over the next five years—beginning with just over $1 million next fiscal year and about $4.8 million in 2024-2025.
The 2020 Mayor’s Scholars were recognized and the top ten award winning essayists were presented with their certificates and checks.
Tenth place went to Livi Ray of Hopkinsville Middle School, Ninth was Alayna Middelton of Christian County Middle, Eighth place was taken by Riley Bailey of University Heights, seventh place was Aalaisha McGregor of CCMS and sixth place was Ella Zordel of HMS. In fifth place was Ryan Hines of CCMS, fourth went to Allison Watson of Heritage Christian Academy, third was taken by Andrew Riggs of HMS, second was Alexis Haskins of CCMS and first place was claimed by Matthew Hauret of University Heights Academy.