Glasgow City Counciperson Patrick Gaunce speaks during a finance committee meeting on June 24, 2020. The Glasgow City Council on Monday heard details regarding a potential increase in the city’s payroll tax.
Brennan Crain/WCLU News
GLASGOW, Ky. – The Glasgow City Council heard information on Monday for the first time regarding a proposed payroll tax increase.
The finance committee has deliberated on the topic for weeks, which originated before the 2020-21 fiscal budget was passed. Due to major industry loss and COVID-19 the finance committee began seeking additional revenue sources.
Wendell Honeycutt, chairperson of the finance committee, said the committee has taken no action other than discussion of numbers.
“We have been looking for over a year about the possibility of changing the payroll tax rate,” Honeycutt said. “It’s a very, very small adjustment. Very small adjustments spread over quite a few people will make a big difference to the city.”
The rate was last increased 33 years ago, Honeycutt said.
The committee was given detaied information at its last meeting on July 1. That information, compiled by occupational tax administrator Brandon Kerney, said the city could not sustain its budget without an increase in the rate.
Two meetings are scheduled for Monday, Aug. 3 and Thursday, Aug. 6. Those meetings will be at the Glasgow City Council Chamber at 6 p.m each night.
Citizens are encouraged to voice their thoughts at those meetings regarding a potential increase in the occupational rate. The proposal is to increase by .25 percent, which would make the new rate 1.75 percent.
The finance committee will ultimately make the recommendation to the council to adopt a rate increase. If the council decides to increase the rate the impact will not impact Glasgow’s employees until Jan.1, 2021.
In other news, the council heard from Maureen Carpenter, executive director of the Barren County Economic Authority.
Despite challenges set forth by the pandemic, Carpenter said the authority has upkept development. Twelve potential projects are in the works, and the job growth is expected to exceed 1750 positions.
“Usually they give us a range and there’s a few projects we don’t have numbers for yet,” Carpenter said. “We’re estimating $159.9 million in capital investment.”
One of the projects has contacted the approving entity for tax incentives for the city, thus indicating the company’s interest in developing within Barren County.
“They were approved for that. We have not announced it yet because it is still preliminary,” Carpenter said. “They have a lot of work that they still need to do.”
Carpenter said the company is international but has intentions to establish themselves in the United States.
“We weren’t ready to do anything with that, but it’s very, very positive,” Carpenter said.
