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Not Enough Funds For Paducah's Many Capital Projects

Lance Dennee
/
WKMS

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.

Whitney grew up listening to Car Talk to and from her family’s beach vacation each year, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to This American Life that radio really grabbed her attention. She is a recent graduate from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where she studied journalism. When she’s not at WKMS, you can find her working on her backyard compost pile and garden, getting lost on her bicycle or crocheting one massive blanket.
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