The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council passed the city’s final budget during its regular meeting Thursday.
The budget includes more than $540 million in spending. It’s the largest budget in Lexington’s history, but it also comes with a rise in costs because of rising material prices.
Vice Mayor Dan Wu says that it’s a tight budget that focuses on the city’s needs.
“It's tighter in the past, and I think part of it was the echoing effect of ARPA funds that we got from the federal government. Post-COVID, we were able to kind of move things around and do a lot more things than we were able. So things were a little looser,” Wu said.
Part of that is also because of uncertainty with continued federal funding.
“It's anyone's guess at this point, not only because we don't have good, consistent guidance and communication from the federal side, but because sometimes something will be said or ordered and then reversed the next day and then reversed again the next day,” Wu said.
A new children’s museum, $3.5 million towards dealing with winter weather and a 3% raise for non-sworn city employees are included in the year’s budget.
City projects include looking into using artificial intelligence for city cybersecurity, continuing a study that would build a solar farm on the Haley Pike Landfill and adding medical monitoring tech for inmates at the Fayette County Detention Center.
This year’s budget will begin at the beginning of next fiscal year this July.
