By: MB McCart, Ed.
The City of Covington will be seeing the largest budget increase in its 199-yr history as the city council recently approved the FY 2021-22 budget in the amount of $142 million.
This represents a $14 million increase over the previous year & corresponds to an 11% increase in the size & scope of government here in the home city.
Without getting into the irony of how many in the We Took Back Our City crowd - the folks that ensured a major change in the makeup our city government in the most recent municipal elections - must be feeling right now, the fact remains that our city government seems to be very financially irresponsible right now & that affects all of the approx 14,000 residents that call this city home.
So, let's get into some specifics. $14 million. That's a lot of dough. Where did these increases come from?
- In terms of percentage growth, the gold medal is awarded to "Community Development" which saw its budget increase 44% to approx $1.3 million
- The Engineering Department saw a 16% increase
- Planning & Zoning jumped to approx $1.34 million, a 15% increase
- Good ole HR, Human Resources, jumped 20% & is right at a cool million for the upcoming year, just edged out by...
- E911 which is seeing its budget push up to almost $4.4 million representing a 21% increase
- Upcoming capital projects & major purchases also played a major role as just over $700K was budgeted for new computers w/ another $1.45 million for vehicles
You know it's bad when the Newton Co. BOC looks good in comparison.
Covington, Covington...
- MBM