Lexington Aldermen Debate Budget, Nothing Approved
City of Lexington Recorder/CFO Cody Wood addresses the Lexington Board of Aldermen on the 2022-23 city budget.
Photo by: Steve Corlew / The Lexington Progress
Article by Steve Corlew-
The Lexington City Board debated the budget, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, but failed to reach an agreement. It is still not known whether to board will raise taxes, cut its budget, or uses its rainy-day fund to balance the budget.
The board will meet again, Monday, July 25th, to tackle the budget. The city is currently operating under the 2021-2022 budgets as it moves into the month of July.
Budgets run from July 1st through June 30th. Unless they can reach an agreement soon, the city will have to approve a continuing budget to keep state and federal money from being delayed.
At the center of the debate is how to handle the department’s requests for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
Approving the proposed budget as presented, would take $1,000,000 from the rainy day fund to cover reoccurring cost. A prospect Mayor Jeff Griggs cautions the board against.
“That is what I want to warn you about,” Griggs said. “When you start taking reoccurring cost out of your fund balance, sooner or later there will have to be a payment.”
In order to avoid that prospect and still cover the budget request, aldermen discussed a possible 40 cent property tax increase.
“If we are going to grow anywhere, we have to have the resources,” Alderman Gabe Williams said. “If we don’t get ahead of this by catching up now, we are going…
For complete coverage, see the July 13th edition of The Lexington Progress.
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