The vote is in and starting July 1st, 2017 Owensboro residents will see higher taxes as the Owensboro City Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the annual budget for 2017-2018.

I was at Owensboro City Hall on Monday evening in an almost three hour meeting which would decide our fate. That meeting gave the community an opportunity to voice concerns and for the City Commissioners to show us the proposed budget plan. The meeting had a very strange vibe as you could just feel that all of the decisions were already made. The Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, who presented their 'One for One' plan last month, were ready to make their case, but they were blindsided when Bill Parrish, City Manager, already laid out and presented the rebuttal of their plan. All of the growth in our community has come with a hefty price tag and it's time to pay up.

In this meeting, Mayor, Tom Watson stated, "We've been as transparent as we can be. We need to move on. The numbers are what they are and we plan to move forward."

Move forward they did in a unanimous vote Wednesday afternoon.

Property taxes raised 4%. This goes into effect July 1st, 2017.

Occupational  fee rate and net profit fee rate from 1.39% to 1.78%.  This will take effect July 1st, 2017.

Increases in the insurance premium license fee from 8% to 10%. This will go into effect July 1st, 2018.

 

Barb Birgy
Barb Birgy
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