Lexington has seen a series of upgrades and expansions at its parks in recent years thanks to federal American Rescue Plan dollars, but with that money slowing to a trickle and unfinished plans still in the works, the city is going to need to chip in to complete them.
Victoria Meyer is with the new parks organization. She says creating a dedicated funding source would allow for "greater vision, consistent maintenance, all the kinds of things that help keep our parks beautiful and functional."
David Lowe, also with Parks Sustainable Funding, says the idea of the tax is to do more than simply complete improvement projects already in the planning stages.
"We want to make sure that this dedicated fund can deliver really transformational change... for generations to come," Lowe said. "This is a truly fiscally responsible path."
The proposed tax – which would translate to roughly $53 annually for an average homeowner –would have to go through the referendum process.
"The last ballot initiative of this kind was in 2005, when voters approved to dedicate new specific tax revenue to Lextran, the public transit agency here, and that is still going on," says Adrian Bryant with CivicLex. "So this would go on in perpetuity."
One other important note: the proposed parks tax would not cover the complete cost of all things parks related. It would fund capital projects, but the Herald-Leader reports operating and personnel costs of the city’s parks department would still come out of the city’s general fund.
