Hopkinsville’s real property tax rate will increase to 23.9 cents per $100 of assessed value, following an 8-4 vote Tuesday by the city council.
(Photo by Jennifer P. Brown)
The new rate is eight-tenths of 1 cent higher than last year’s rate. It will generate an additional 4 percent in revenue.
The eight council members who carried the vote in favor of the rate increase were Darvin Adams, Kimberly McCarley, Don Ahart, Paul Henson, Amy Craig, Wendell Lynch, Patricia Bell and Phillip Brooks. Voting against the increase were Terry Parker, Jimmy Dossett, Jason Bell and Tom Johnson.
With the increase, a homeowner with property valued at $100,000 will pay approximately 75 cents more per month on the city’s property tax bill that goes out this fall.
In other business, the council voted unanimously to name Steve Futrell as the city’s fire chief. Futrell was the deputy chief and had been serving as the interim chief following the retirement of Freddie Montgomery earlier this summer.
The council met with Futrell in closed session two weeks ago, and Mayor Carter Hendricks recommended Futrell’s promotion in a Sept. 10 memo to the council.
Futrell has been a Hopkinsville firefighter since 1999, and he became the department’s deputy chief in 2018. His salary as chief will be $91,397.
In other matters, Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin presented the monthly financial report.
The city’s general fund had a $1 million deficit for the first two months of the 2019-20 fiscal year, but Martin said he expects the fund to balance after the city begins collecting property taxes in October.
However, the city’s payroll tax revenue came in 2 percent below the amount collected for the first two months of the previous fiscal year.
(Photo by Jennifer P. Brown)
This year the city budgeted for $17,118,744 in payroll tax revenue, which would be $2,853,124 for July and August. The city collected $2,739,582 for those months this year and $2,796,471 last year.
“I am a little concerned, but it is still early in the year,” Martin said after the meeting.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting:
- The council approved a resolution recognizing local emergency dispatchers as first responders. Previously, Christian Fiscal Court also approved the measure. It clarifies that dispatchers should not be considered clerical workers, officials said. The mayor said dispatchers are actually the “first first-responders.”
- The council approved $24,712 matching funds to qualify for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant from FEMA for $247,120.
- Council members approved on second reading a measure that increases the size of the airport board from six to 10 members.
- Representatives of the Kentucky League of Cities presented the Friend of Kentucky Cities award to state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton.
- Three new city firefighters, Ryan McKnight, Rick Murray and Eric Powell, were sworn in and congratulated by council members.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
