The Covington Board of Commissioners passed the budget for the next fiscal year amid an ongoing budget deficit in Covington’s general fund Tuesday evening.
A vote on the budget was originally scheduled for the legislative meeting next week, but unanimous consent of the commissioners allows passage of legislation at a caucus meeting, which is usually reserved for discussion. The mayor proposed the idea of voting early, and the board of commissioners unanimously voted to enact the budget following his proposal.
The current fiscal year concludes at the end of the month, and meetings between the leadership professionals of the different city departments and the elected commission members occurred in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s vote.
In addition to the typical departmental planning that occurs during budget season, many of the budget discussions have focused on ways the city could cut costs in the face of an ongoing budget deficit in Covington’s general fund, from which the city draws most of its operating budget.
Finance reports from the end of the last two fiscal years show actual general fund expenditures exceeding revenues by roughly $2.4 million and $2.6 million, respectively. Similar shortfalls have not occurred in the city’s other funds, which are less dependent on tax revenue.
As a result of the crunch in the general fund, the commission tabled many decisions on city spending, including delaying decisions on hiring as well as equipment purchases.
Covington Mayor Joe Meyer affirmed this when asked why he proposed voting early.
"We've been playing with the budget for months and months, no surprise," Meyer said, "and we held off a whole lot of decisions."
Now that budget is passed, he added, the city can start the process of revisiting the decisions they postponed.
There was no discussion among the commissioners about the budget passage, but they did discuss the city's annual fiscal priorities per the meeting's agenda. Fiscal priorities are set each year, and the municipal order that sets them mandates city manager Ken Smith provide the board with updates on the city's financial performance at the beginning of each quarter in October, January, April and July.
The commission will focus on the following priorities in addition to continuing work on the Central Riverfront Development and Brent Spence projects (read the full text of the order here):
- Separating the parking authority and its financial operations from the city government. Depending on the joint advice of the city's legal department, finance department and auditors; the city hopes to achieve this within two years
- Begin construction on the new city hall building
- Complete review and action on the Covington-Newport bike plan as proposed by Tri-State Trails
- Solicit bids for city electric franchises
- Complete merger of Housing Choice Voucher program, known more commonly as Section 8, with the Housing Authority of Covington
- Contract with Neighborhood Investment Partners, Inc., an independent property management company, to manage the affordable housing initiatives in the city
- Perform management audit on the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky to assess its compliance with the "city’s licensure requirements, and specifically require a management review by an independent third party of the Shelter’s policies and operations for the purposes of decreasing Shelter reliance on the city’s first responders and reducing negative impact on adjoining neighborhoods." This audit will be funded through federal CDBG allotments
- Consider Licking Riverside traffic proposal with 4th St bridge/road diet plan, in particular 4th Street from Greenup to the bridge and the removal of bridge traffic from Garrard Street
- Contract to convert Scott and Greenup Streets to two-way streets
- Reach agreement to build separate sewer storm sewer system to resolve street and basement flooding in the area of 36th Street and Park Avenue
- Update local policies related to required reports to the board of commissioners
- Consider the creation of a Health Insurance Planning Commission to review the sustainability of the city’s self-insurance health plans
- Continue updating and improving management of city records access and attendant policies
- Further develop the concept of a joint City-Board of Education Recreation Commission.
- Develop a comprehensive plan to address the broken up sidewalks in throughout the city
The final point about the sidewalks spurned some discussion among the commissioners. The original text of the order only referenced the sidewalks in Mainstrasse, but commissioner Tim Downing proposed extending it throughout the city.
"It's a minor change in the language," Downing said, but it spoke to the "breadth of the goal."
Commissioner Ron Washington then asked if the sidewalks were the responsibility of the respective property owners, to which Smith said that they were unless the damage resulted directly from city action. Smith added that citations related to sidewalks from the city's code enforcement board were routine.
Commissioner Steve Hayden said that there were many city residents who have had to repair sidewalks at their own expense at the code enforcement board's behest.
As such, Hayden said, "I think that needs to be factored in as to how fair that is if, for some reason, we were going to not have the owners of the sidewalks pay for repairs."
Smith said that there currently wasn't any plan for the city to take on the expense of repairing sidewalks.
The commissioners voted unanimously to change the language and put the order on the consent agenda for next week's meeting, meaning it will likely pass.
LINK nky spoke with Smith after the meeting, asking how the city would enact the fiscal priority if the city wasn't going to take on responsibility for the sidewalks.
"We'll put together some plan to address how to move forward," Smith said.
He referenced previous programs the city has used, such as hardship assistance programs or spreading the cost of repairs over tax bills.
"We don't want to put a hardship on the businesses or the residents because it is expensive, and some people simply don't have the money," Smith said. "But at the end of the day, we've got to ensure public safety. So it's a balancing act."
The next meeting of the Covington Board of Commissioners will take place on Tuesday, June 25, beginning at 6 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.