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Calloway Fiscal Court Advances Budget, Works To Enact Transient Room Tax

Murray Convention and Visitors Bureau

The Calloway County Fiscal Court met in-person Wednesday to move forward on several pieces of local legislation including the county budget. 

The county budgeting process hit a major milestone with the first reading Wednesday of the proposed budget ordinance. The county will now submit a draft of the document to the Kentucky Department for Local Government (DLG). DLG maintains guidance for local governments and works to ensure the submitted budgets meet statutory requirements. Policies published by the DLG for county fiscal court budgets may be found here.

The proposed funding plan includes $15,495,401.37 in total budgeted appropriations. The document will receive further consideration at next month’s fiscal court meeting.   

One area of reduced spending will be the county jail’s allotment for healthcare costs. Deputy Judge/Executive Gina Winchester said the current provider, Advanced Correctional Healthcare, planned to increase costs to a level that would not be feasible for the county.

“Their proposal was going up 3.5%, which was going to be an over $6,000 increase and getting us close to $200,000,” Winchester said. 

The county is looking to transition into a contract with West Kentucky Correctional Healthcare. Winchester said the new contract will save the county close to $20,000. She said the company is relatively new, with three other jail contracts throughout the region. 

“We were a little hesitant, only because they are new, but the kind of cost savings they are projecting, it was almost like a no-brainer,” she explained. 

The fiscal court also tackled a proposal to form a tourism commission for the county. The ordinance would establish a commission that is separate from the City of Murray Convention and Visitors Bureau. The proposed ordinance outlines the generation of tax revenue as a key reason for potential enactment by the fiscal court. The commission would serve the purpose of “promoting and developing convention, tourist activities, and business in the county.”

The tourism commission would be funded by a transient room tax. KRS 91A.390 authorizes local governments to enact the tax, which would collect three percent of the cost of renting hotel rooms, resort suites, and similar ventures in Calloway County. The tax would not apply to apartments governed by rental or lease agreements. 

Second readings and further discussion for the tourism commission, transient room tax, and budget ordinances will come in the fiscal court’s June meeting. You may view all documents cited in this report, including the full county budget, below:

 

Dalton York is a Morning Edition host and reporter for WKYU in Bowling Green. He is a graduate of Murray State University, where he majored in History with a minor in Nonprofit Leadership Studies. While attending Murray State, he worked as a student reporter at WKMS. A native of Marshall County, he is a proud product of his tight-knit community.
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