Paducah has 54 capital projects planned for the next five fiscal years but the city doesn’t yet have the more than $70 million to fund them all, including rebuilding the crumbling City Hall.
City Spokeswoman Pam Spencer says more than half of those projects can be funded from the city’s Investment Fund. But it is limited with five-sixths of the fundsallocated for annual projects and debt payments.
Currently, 19 of the projects have no funding at a total of $57 million. Among those are the new City Hall, relocation of Public Safety Headquarters and a park at the former Executive Inn site.
City Manager Jeff Pederson suggests issuing bonds but he says the city would have to go beyond the Investment Fund to pay them off. He also suggests raising the 6 percent insurance premium tax. Each one cent increase would bring the city $600,000 that could go to these projects.
