District 8 eNews: The Projects Edition

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Councilman
Brandon Coan

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Jasmine Masterson

Legislative Aide

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 tel: 574-1108

 District 8 Website



Welcome: Getting Stimulated

Welcome, bienvenidos and ahlan wa sahlan to the Projects Edition of District 8 eNews.  Almost eight years ago to the day, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, more commonly known as the Stimulus bill, which invested in infrastructure across the nation to lift the economy after the Great Recession.  I mention this anniversary of the ARRA because District 8 is in line for a little Stimulus of our own.  As part of my discretionary budget planning for the rest of this fiscal year and next, I discovered that several of Councilman Tom Owen’s projects from years past came in under budget, a number of old appropriations remain unused and various accounts reconcile greater balances than originally thought.  The final totals are still being counted but the dollar amount will range from low to mid six figures and it is money we can put to work almost immediately.  This is great news!  As I’ll explain in the Streets Report below, I expect to reallocate the majority of these dollars for paving, tree planting and parks projects. 

District 8 isn’t awash in cash by any means, but thanks to this windfall and Councilman Owen’s historical fiscal responsibility we head into the next four years with savings for a rainy day (or to put toward a significant investment) and little in the way of critical deferred maintenance.  Before he left office, Councilman Owen also put into motion many projects to be completed before the end of the year, including paving and sidewalks, alley repair, improvements to Willow Park, a Tyler Park Bridge preservation study and more.  

As a matter of policy, I intend to prioritize District 8 discretionary spending on capital projects over events and other non-essential recurring expenses, although I believe a mix of both are important.  In some cases, this will mean reducing, eliminating or requiring matching fund amounts to both future and past Neighborhood Development Fund grantees.  I realize this change might create difficulties for some organizations that have come to depend on NDF to support their operations but I have a fiduciary duty to taxpayers that exceeds charitable giving.  That’s why I also plan to reserve 1% of our annual discretionary allowance for internal audit and save another 10% for the reasons described above.

Another new financial policy will be to adopt discretionary budgets identifying projects to be completed and amounts to be allocated for non-project spending prior to the start of the fiscal year.  You will be able to scrutinize my plans for FY18 on our Data & Documents page at the District 8 website soon.  In fact, I’m counting on you to do it!  One of my strategic objectives is to put the power of participatory budgeting into your hands beginning FY19 (July 1, 2018).

In the meantime, you can review Councilman Owen’s historical spending and let me know what you think about it at: brandon.coan@louisvilleky.gov (and please copy jasmine.masterson@louisvilleky.gov) or 574-1108.

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Thanks Very Much,

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Councilman Brandon Coan