"On the night of his election, Mayor Jim Newberry told supporters and well wishers, "For too long, we've ignored many challenges. We haven't adequately invested in our roads and sewers. We haven't hired enough police officers. We haven't effectively engaged our fellow citizens in a vigorous debate about where, when and how we grow. We haven't worked to develop the kinds of jobs that can provide our kids and grandkids with employment in the years to come." Stating that such challenges can no longer be neglected, the mayor-elect pledged to begin the process of addressing and overcoming them.
Hearing this reminded me of something from last year's Commerce Lexington Leadership Trip to Oklahoma City. Then candidate Newberry was reading John P. Kotter's "Leading Change," a thoughtful exploration of the pressures on organizations to change and the methods leaders have used to transform companies into stronger competitors. Newberry's first proposed budget as mayor is framed as a reordering of priorities, and much of the change he proposes is all about balancing the tensions between strengthening Lexington's competitive stature in a global marketplace with an equally critical imperative to preserve the city's unique, local character.
There are winners and losers, but a dollar goes only so far, and there always are devils in budgetary details.
Totaling $281.6 million, the plan calls for the addition of 50 police officers, an enhancement of public safety in both practice and perception. And it would invest $5 million in parks and bike and pedestrian trails — a nod to the mayor's argument that a city with appealing environs is a city that attracts competitive 21st century employers and employees. "This," he commented, "is a quality of life issue, a health issue, an economic development issue, a recreation issue, a transportation issue." This is all about enhancing the experience of living and working in Lexington. And in today's world, lifestyle is economic development.
The mayor then takes a very bold step in the same direction, emphasizing the concept of "building up, not out" by allocating $2 million for the establishment of an urban Purchase of Development Rights program, under which the city would buy land located within the Urban Services Boundary and profit by reselling it to developers. He also proposes maintaining $2 million in funding for the existing rural Purchase of Development Rights Program designed to preserve the thing that comes to mind whenever and wherever "Lexington, Kentucky" is uttered: our distinctive signature brand, the surrounding horse farms. These PDR funds, both urban and rural, would be financed through bonds.
The budget acknowledges another neglected priority by increasing funds for the Downtown Development Authority, where President Harold Tate has been struggling to oversee the rebirth of the city's central core with a meager staff of one.
The city planning department would receive an additional $600,000 to conduct a needed survey of the city's housing market and to expand neighborhood planning.
Spending $250,000 to determine whether it would be more cost-effective for the Urban County government to remain in its present leaky digs at the former Lafayette Hotel or find a new home makes sense. Without benefit of this research, it already seems pretty evident that pouring more tax dollars into the upkeep of the present government center amounts to throwing good dollars after bad.
There is recognition of the arts as critical to the expression of a community's life and character — things that make a city an interesting place in which to live and to visit. The proposed budget would provide LexArts with half of its 2007 fundraising goal of $1 million, encouraging more active public participation by stipulating that $150,000 of the total would be available as a dollar-for-dollar matching program.
We think the most significant and forward thinking component of the mayor's budget, in keeping with his pledge to re-order the priorities of the LFUCG, is a proposal to increase funding for Commerce Lexington by a whopping 631 percent. The stated aim is to enable effective new business recruitment, minority business development and workforce development. For a city whose general fund relies heavily on a payroll tax, attracting new employers is essential.
This is especially true in light of some very serious challenges for which this mayor has consistently prepared us. The city will soon complete negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency to determine how it will rectify violations of the Clean Water Act related to problems with the city's long neglected sewer system. The cost of bringing the system into compliance is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars — this, for a city with a total annual budget of less than $300 million. The mayor has stated clearly and repeatedly that this can only mean significantly higher sanitary sewer fees as well as an entirely new fee to tap into the city's stormwater sewer system. But in the balancing act of maintaining Lexington's attractive cost-of-living, there is a limit to tolerance for taxation. Jobs — more of them and with fatter paychecks to feed the payroll tax — are a must.
Because of this, we hoped that the mayor's budget would include the "Lexington First" program Newberry proposed during the campaign. The program would level the playing field by eliminating financial barriers and providing college scholarships to academically qualified high school graduates who major in science, technology, engineering and math — including education majors who would teach those subjects. And it would encourage graduates in these fields to establish their own roots in the Bluegrass by stipulating that they must remain here for a set number of years to avoid forfeiture of the scholarships. With American jobs being shipped out of the country by the millions thanks to communication technology that allows services to be delivered electronically from afar, the future prosperity of the city and region depend on the development — and retention — of a skilled and innovative workforce capable of holding its own against such fierce global competition.
In the same breath, however, we acknowledge that so much change on such a scale cannot happen all at once. Establishing a solid economic development effort through more funding for Commerce Lexington will help to ensure that suitable local jobs exist for those future graduates and provide the means to leverage such a program, once established, to businesses considering a Lexington location. The mayor has said he will revisit the scholarship program with next year's budget proposal, and we have every confidence that his word is solid.
Following the interview with columnist Ben Perry that appears on the front page of this edition, the mayor confided concern that with the announcement of his budget, "the honeymoon will be over."
We think the mayor and his staff can breathe easy in that regard. This budget is hard evidence that a sincere effort is being made to bring about the needed changes Newberry called for throughout his campaign.
For a community its size, Lexington is experiencing a dizzying array of simultaneous paradigm shifts: significant changes in leadership, demographics, culture and growth patterns. Recognizing these complexities affords a willingness to be patient. Without knowing with certainty what level of debt the EPA's coming action will require of the city, the mayor's spending plan, representing an 8.8 percent increase, is ambitious, if not bold. But effective leadership of a city with so much promise does not sit idly by, avoiding the politically difficult while doing nothing to realize that potential.
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