Hopkinsville Mayor Wendell Lynch will give his first budget address Friday and propose a $38.56 million spending plan for 2020-21, which is approximately $1 million more than the current budget of $37.44 million. The increase is 3 percent.
The address will be live-streamed at 9 a.m. from the Hopkinsville Municipal Center, which remains closed to the public because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, the public can find the live-stream here. The proposed budget was posted on the city’s website Monday evening.
The budget’s revenue projections show what city officials expect from the impact of unemployment brought on by the coronavirus.
Payroll tax revenue, which is the city’s single largest source of income, will slide 7.05 percent, from $17.12 million budgeted this year to $15.91 million in the coming fiscal year, city officials are predicting.
Stay-at-home orders and bans on gatherings have forced businesses to close as public health officials and the governor look to curb the spread of COVID-19. More than 500,000 people in Kentucky have filed for unemployment benefits.
Across the country, more than 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past five weeks.
The mayor will ask city council to spend $676,951 of the city’s roughly $9.5 million in reserve funds (also called prior-year revenue) to balance spending next year.
Every agency that relies on city money will see a reduction of at least 4 percent — with one exception. Community and Development Services’ allocation would increase 12.4 percent, from $621,751 to $698,985.
After receiving the mayor’s proposed budget, city council is expected to discuss it at Committee of the Whole meetings on May 7 and 14. A third committee meeting will be slated May 21, if needed.
The meetings will be conducted by videoconference. Statewide, all public agency meetings are being done virtually because of the coronavirus.
The new fiscal year begins July 1. The budget requires two votes by the council.
(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. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
