Highlights from Mayor Gorton’s Budget Address

On Tuesday April 16th, Mayor Linda Gorton kicked off Budget Season with her annual Budget Address! The Budget is now in Council’s hands — they will work on the Budget over the next two months to make revisions and changes, and are scheduled to finally approve the Budget on June 13th.

The General Fund for the Fiscal Year 2024/2025 (FY24/25) Budget is $538.1 million, the largest in City history, and a substantial increase over the current Budget’s General Fund of $505 million.

Broken down by topic, here are some highlights from the Mayor’s Budget Address.

Public Safety

Nearly 56% of the proposed Budget will go towards public safety expenses. Mayor Gorton specifically highlighted:

• $263,000 for the creation of four new safety officer positions in the Police Department

• $75,000 for the acquisition of 25 additional Flock license plate reader cameras, bringing the City total to 125 cameras

• $5.1 million for three new fire trucks and three new EMS ambulances

• $55,000 to ONE Lexington’s trauma-informed care services, and

• $100k to mental health court, which provides mental health treatment to offenders as an alternative to incarceration

• $100,000 to the It’s Time Campaign, which seeks to increase awareness around and prevent domestic violence

City Planning

Allocations around City Planning focus largely on two areas: the Urban Service Boundary expansion and Complete Streets projects.

• $437,000 is allocated for the creation of four new positions in the Division of Planning, largely to help with planning efforts around the Urban Service Boundary expansion

• $119,000 is allocated for a new Complete Streets Manager position to oversee Complete Streets projects

• Complete Streets projects include:

  • $1.45 million as a local match for improvements to New Circle Road, which is largely funded by a $22 million federal grant

  • $1 million to add ADA ramps across the city

  • $900,000 for traffic signals and general bicycle and pedestrian improvements

  • A $200,000 local match to an $800,000 federal grant for bicycle and pedestrian improvements, as well as intersection improvements, on Armstrong Mill Road

Environment

The address was fairly light on environmental investments, but three that Mayor Gorton mentioned are:

• An increase of $700,000 from last year toward recycling

• $6 million to go toward odor control improvements in Lexington’s water treatment plants

• The creation of an Odor Control Specialist position

Housing, Homelessness, and Social Services

This is the first Budget year where 1% of the General Fund and .3% of the General Fund must go toward the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Homelessness Intervention Fund, respectively.

The Extended Social Resources program, which provides funding for non-profit agencies, also receives 1% of the General Fund. Together, these investments total to $11 million.

• $4.79 million to the Affordable Housing Fund

• $1.4 million to the Homelessness Intervention Fund

• $4.97 million to the ESR program

Other Noteworthy Projects

Notably, no funding has been provided for a new City Hall, which has been discussed heavily over the past several years. However, there are other significant capital investments being made.

• $24 million for a new Senior Center and Therapeutic Center in Shillito Park, which will begin construction this fall

• $2.9 million for various parks improvements

• $2.1 million toward a new business park in Scott County, which will be funded jointly — and will split revenue evenly — by Scott, Madison, and Fayette Counties

After implementing several items from the Racial Justice and Equity Commission’s 2020 report, this budget also allocated $100,000 for a study to investigate the effectiveness of these action items.

What’s next for the Budget process?

Council kicks off their work on the Budget next week. Links, which are essentially Committees of three Councilmembers focusing on various portions of the budget begin meeting next Monday. Next Tuesday, April 23rd at 1pm, Council will have a Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss the Budget altogether.

You can learn more about the Budget process, and how you can get involved, here.

We are hard at work here at CivicLex combing through the Budget so we can bring you an updated and accessible Budget Guide! We will also have a public database for you to navigate aspects of the Budget, and will host educational events around Lexington. Stay tuned to CivicLex for more!

Republished from CivicLex.

CivicLex’s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

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