The city of Hopkinsville will need to draw on reserve funds to balance next year’s budget, Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin told city council members during a videoconference meeting Tuesday night.
The amount will depend on how much the city’s payroll tax revenue has declined since the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of most retail businesses and restaurants to in-house customers in mid-March.
While many details about funding remain unclear, officials are on the same budget schedule that the city traditionally follows. Mayor Wendell Lynch will give the budget address on Friday, May 1. It will be live-streamed because in-person gatherings are currently banned.
The payroll tax is the city’s single largest revenue source. For example, in the original projections for the city’s current budget, then-Mayor Carter Hendricks outlined a $36.8 million spending plan that included $17.1 million in payroll tax revenue.
Currently, the city’s reserve fund is approximately $9.5 million.
Officials know that payroll tax revenue will be well below projections for March and April, but it’s unclear what to expect in the coming months.
“May will be the critical month,” Martin said.
There is speculation that Congress will pass a third stimulus package to help local and state governments, and that could also factor into the city’s next budget.
The new fiscal year begins July 1.
“Hopefully, we will see some relief from the federal government,” Martin told the council.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, the council approved a resolution supporting a federal transportation grant application that seeks $25 million for the Interstate 24 Industrial Connector. The resolution includes a $500,000 commitment from the city if the grant is awarded. The county is also supporting the resolution, Lynch said.
The connector will begin at Exit 89 on I-24 near Oak Grove and run along a widened Kentucky 115 toward Pembroke. A connector road would be built from Kentucky 115 near the Pembroke Elementary School to Commerce Park on Pembroke Road.
In addition to boosting the region’s economy by improving the infrastructure that serves local industry, the road project would also improve safety in Pembroke by diverting truck traffic out of the small town, said Hendricks, who left the mayor’s post early this year to become executive director of the South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council.
The grant application deadline is May 18. If the pandemic does not affect the process, the grants would be awarded this fall.
“We do think we have a very competitive application,” Hendricks said.
The council also approved the city’s application for a $250,000 Recreational Trails Program grant. It requires a $50,000 city match. The money would be used to construct 3,147 linear feet of trail in the area of the Park Lane Trailhead.
The council unanimously approved the following executive orders from the mayor:
- Gwenda Motley appointed to the Hopkinsville-Christian County Planning Commission Board for a term through April 30, 2024.
- Tony Meacham appointed to the Code of Ordinance Enforcement Board for a term through Feb. 28, 2023.
- Tom Wood reappointed to the Hopkinsville Cable Television Oversight Authority for a term through April 30, 2024.
- Paula Knight appointed to the Hopkinsville Cable Television Oversight Authority to fill the unexpired term of Connie Scoggins through Feb. 28, 2022.
- Cornelia Belle appointed to the Hopkinsville Code of Ethics Board for a term through April 30, 2023.
- Rich Cooper reappointed and Tiffany Mumford Brame appointed as alternate members of the Code of Ethics Board for terms through April 30, 2021.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
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.
