Local officials keeping legislative priorities on state’s radar
Lawmakers heading back to Frankfort next week will be working in a short, off-year session, which means they won’t be tackling a new state budget.
Local officials said Thursday even though there won’t be funds for new projects in this year’s session, they will be keeping local projects in legislators’ minds for future dollars.
“It’s my understanding they are very reluctant to reopen the budget in an off-year,” Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen said. Doing so, Castlen said, “creates a cascade effect,” with communities lobbying their legislators to get projects funded in the reopened budget.
Castlen said a focus will be to keep legislators aware of local projects.
“One of the things we hope to still broach the topic, and with our federal delegation, is our new public security building,” Castlen said. Fiscal Court voted to hire a design firm in November to draw up plans on a facility that would house Emergency Management, the Sheriff’s Office’s patrol division, a third county fire station, and the backup county 911 dispatch center.
“It’s a long-term process to see if they can help us with any funding,” Castlen said.
The planned new senior center on U.S. 60 West would also be a project the county would want legislators to remember for the future, Castlen said. Both the city and county have allocated funds for the new center, which will be built on land the city purchased near the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden.
“We (the county) gave them $2 million toward that, and hopefully the federal and state delegations might step up and help us with that as well,” Castlen said.
Mayor Tom Watson said while city officials haven’t discussed any specific priorities for the session, transportation projects are also an issue of particular interest.
“It’s not a handing-out year,” with a state budget to approve, Watson said. But Watson said he would like legislators to remember local road projects, such as the proposed roundabout on Fairview Drive and the proposed “Mid-States Corridor,” which would create an interstate between Owensboro and I-69 in Indiana. Castlen said he would also want to keep lawmakers apprised of work to improve Thruston-Dermont Road.
“It’s always transportation issues,” Watson said.
City Manager Nate Pagan said the city is supportive of the issues identified by the Kentucky League of Cities. The KLC website says the organization’s priorities include road funding, “protecting city revenue, and allowing all cities to collect consumption-based restaurant revenue.”
Candance Castlen Brake, president and CEO of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber will continue to advocate for previous priorities, including a reduction in the state’s income tax, more childcare options that would allow more people back into the workforce, and an option to create a local option sales tax for restaurants.
“We are certainly involved in a statewide group that is pushing for a constitutional amendment” for a local option sales tax, Brake said. While some Kentucky cities are allowed to implement local option sales taxes on things such as restaurant bills, Owensboro cannot.
A constitutional amendment allowing any city to implement the tax “allows more counties to have more flexibility in local taxes,” Brake said.
“We will continue to advocate for reduced state income tax,” and would work to make sure Chamber members are protected from legislation that could negatively impact them, Brake said.
“It’s about being our Chamber membership’s ‘boots on the ground,’ and advocating for local business,” while making sure bills proposed in Frankfort “are not harmful to our membership,” Brake said.
By James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer