Mayor Gorton’s Fiscal Year 2020 Proposed Budget was read for the second time at the Council meeting on Thursday evening, June 20, 2019, and is a difficult budget in light of the fact that Fayette County expenses are rising faster than its revenue.

As such, Mayor Gorton has referred to this as a “continuation budget”, working hard to continue funding those efforts that keep our city operating as we know it while also cutting expenses as possible. Fayette Alliance fully appreciates and respects the difficult financial position of the City of Lexington and applauds Mayor Gorton’s efforts to reduce spending in a reasonable, manageable, and resourceful way while still maintaining programs and funding critical to our city’s success. We know that all members of the Council have also spent significant time and energy on analyzing the issues at hand and discussing careful solutions to address those dilemmas.

In addition to the continued funding of programs supporting infrastructure, greenspace and the arts, notable funding updates include:

• $200,000.00 for workforce development with a focus on local needs
• $2 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
• $750,000.00 to the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention
• $401,000.00 to the PDR program

We applaud Mayor Gorton for, despite the budgetary limitations, emphasizing the importance of the PDR program to our city and restoring partial funding of the same to the 2020 Budget. While we understand the reasoning behind this partial funding, we do want to express our concern publicly for a potential precedent of not fully funding PDR in our city’s annual budget and re-emphasize the importance of this program to our city’s identity, economy, and quality of life. Our precious Bluegrass farmland, the foundation of our community in so many ways, is a finite resource and its protection cannot be overlooked. As we continue to grow, the balance of our urban areas and rural land is more important than ever. See our full position statement for more information on how the land protected by the PDR program works for our community and why it should be fully funded in Fiscal Year 2021 and beyond.