After much discussion, Hopkinsville City Council passed a $41.1 million budget on second-reading at Tuesday’s meeting.
The spending plan for fiscal year 2021-2022 includes an additional $600,000 in pension costs and city employees will receive a two-percent cost-of-living raise. There are also expenditures to bring the salaries of some department heads into line with their peers across the state.
Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin says the budget that came before council was a deficit budget, instead of surplus, due to an amendment at the last meeting to add $50,000 to the Inner-City REZ budget. Due to that, councilmember Terry Parker explained why he would be voting no, saying he couldn’t agree with passing a budget that wasn’t at least balanced.
Along with Parker, members Travis Martin, Steve Keel, Chuck Crabtree and Amy Craig voted ‘no’ on passing the operational budget, with other members voting yes—members Jason Bell and Kimberly McCarley were not present, along with Mayor Wendell Lynch. It failed to pass. Councilman Parker then made a motion to put the budget back on the agenda for reconsideration—in the end, a $41.1 million operational budget did pass 7 to 3, along with the $2 million capital budget.
CFO Martin explained that the budget that passed does include the $50,000 for the Inner-City REZ, and therefore is a deficit budget—but council can come back in the future and amend it as necessary to balance it.
In some good news, Martin says they have received approximately $3.3 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan, and he says the pay roll tax revenues have greatly rebounded in the city, showing that recovery from the pandemic is going well. Hopkinsville Police Officer Lamblin was sworn in at the meeting.