In one more potential sign of a rebounding local economy, Mayor Jim Gray outlined an ambitious spending plan Tuesday that he argues is only possible because of prudent investments made by previous councils.
Buoyed by rosier economic forecasts and recovering tax revenues, Gray told city leaders it’s time to move forward on projects that have been collecting dust for years. In his address, the mayor credited the council with reforms that resulted in "a reduction of $116 million dollars in our unfunded pension liability, an annual savings of $12 million a year in employee health insurance, a 60 percent reduction in the cost of sewer projects required by the Consent Decree."
Now, with surpluses three years running, Gray is pushing to restore core elements of the city’s ailing former courthouse, build a new downtown park, and bump up most city workers’ pay by 3 percent. It’s a plan that would also call for an increase in borrowing over the current year, around $25 million according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Looking to head off any worries about those numbers, Gray pointed to previous city bonding efforts topping $70 million during the recession in 2009 and 2010. While those helped shore up the city’s police and fire pensions, the new borrowing would go toward a number of new projects – improving roads and funding a new science building for Bluegrass Community and Technical College.
"We've borrowed at that level in the past," Vice Mayor Steve Kay says. "It does not significantly increase the percentage of borrowing that we're doing compared to our income, and I think that there are projects that essentially will pay off in the long run."
The budget now heads to the council, where initial reaction has been generally positive.
