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Lexington council carves up $20M in fund balance dollars for a new city hall, medical debt aid, and more

Josh James
/
WUKY

Lexington city leaders spent four hours Tuesday hashing out how to spend roughly $20 million in leftover money from the previous year’s fiscal budget.

Council members were tasked with taking about $47 million in proposed projects and narrowing that down to what the city can afford.

One major item requested by the mayor: funds for a new city hall. During discussions about how best to plan for and ultimately pay for the hypothetical project, Vice Mayor Dan Wu had questions.

"And I get the philosophy of it, that we're putting aside money for this impending deposit or impending insertion of cash. It makes me wonder a little bit — is there any downside to waiting until we have more firm numbers before we start putting aside money?" he quizzed local officials.

Ultimately, the council allotted $8.5 million for the long-sought-after city hall venture. One brand new item would have the city earmark $1 million to partner with a national nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt, to help pay off medical bills for low-income residents.

"Medical debt is one of the things that really financially destroys more families in our country than almost any other single thing," council member Jennifer Reynolds said. "People who have any type of serious medical condition, or even just have to go to the emergency room, are sometimes left with bills that are just so high that they they cannot pay it."

Other proposals that crossed the finish line in the marathon council of the whole meeting were $2 million for paving, $1.5 million for district-specific projects, and $1 million for one-time bonuses for city workers, among more than a dozen major items.

Josh James fell in love with college radio at Western Kentucky University's student station, New Rock 92 (now Revolution 91.7). After working as a DJ and program director, he knew he wanted to come home to Lexington and try his hand in public radio.