Hopkinsville City Council will have a special meeting, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27, with four state lawmakers who represent districts that fall within the city limits to discuss how the state’s pension crisis is affecting budgets in Hopkinsville and other Kentucky cities.
Republican state Sen. Whitney Westerfield and Republican state Reps. Lynn Bechler, Walker Thomas and Myron Dossett are set to meet with the council at the Hopkinsville Municipal Center.
Last week, a local committee, chaired by Ward 6 Councilman Wendell Lynch, presented recommendations on funding options to overcome the city’s required payments into the pension system. Those recommendations include increases to Hopkinsville’s insurance premium and business license taxes and cuts to city departments and agencies supported by the city.
Along with Lynch, council members Kim McCarley, Don Ahart and Jason Bell served on the committee with county treasurer Walter Cummings, county Magistrate Magaline Ferguson, South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council board chair Lee Conrad, former council member Dave Fernandez and retired banker Ken Hatzakorzian.
At the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting Jan. 16, several council members and city officials were critical of the General Assembly’s role in allowing the pension shortfalls to climb.
Ward 4 representative Paul Henson said the city’s approach to dealing with the pension expense is based on the assumption that the General Assembly would continue to “shirk its duty.”
“I feel like I’m rewarding people for bad behavior,” Ward 8 representative Tom Johnson said of the recommendation to raise taxes in Hopkinsville.
If city council takes no action to raise revenue and/or cut spending to deal with required pension payments that continue to increase, the city will amass a $5.78 million deficit by the 2024-25 fiscal year, Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin estimated.
The council’s meeting Monday with state lawmakers is open to the public, as required by the Kentucky Open Meetings Law. The municipal center is at 715 S. Virginia Street.
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.
