Do you endorse LIFT and the Local Option Sales Tax?
YES – I endorse the concept of LIFT and the local citizens’ ability to select and approve, thru their vote at the ballot box, local projects “the voters” would like to accomplish. These projects are then completed with funding thru a local sales tax that ends at the completion of the project!
This concept, Local Initiatives For Transformation (LIFT), is a product of the Metropolitan Alliance for Growth (MAG), of which I am a member. The Mayors of Louisville and Lexington, along with the Judge/Executives of the six other largest counties in the Commonwealth comprise the membership of MAG.
This January, MAG will enter its third year of working with the General Assembly to provide the citizens with an opportunity for a state-wide vote on a constitutional amendment to allow citizens within their counties and cities to locally approve a temporary sales tax to pay for local projects the citizens approve to undertake.
Whether you are in support of LIFT or not, what projects do you see as priority that could benefit from community funding?
I believe the most viable projects are those having the greatest economic impact and quality of life impact on citizens of the community. In Hardin County, I think some of the top priority projects for consideration could be:
- YMCA complex
- Convention Center
- Agriculture Exposition Center
- Enhanced County wide parks and recreation sites
In light of potential additional cuts at Fort Knox, will you continue to provide funding for One Knox? If not, what are you willing to do to protect the economic contributions of Fort Knox?
YES – I STRONGLY SUPPORT the concept and continued funding for One Knox!
I was one of the original organizers of the One Knox concept in 2005. I initially served as the Vice-Chairman and subsequently as the Chairman of One Knox prior to the organization being absorbed by the Chamber of Commerce in 2012. I was heavily engaged in the “road show” visits to Missouri, Indiana, and the two Virginia sites to recruit each organization’s employees to move to our community. I have assisted in the oversight of almost every study completed thru One Knox regarding the impacts of BRAC on our community.
The continuation of the One Knox concept is extremely important to our community’s success in preparation for the next impending BRAC round! Speaking with one voice to represent our community to Washington on these issues is extremely important. It is also important to centralize the coordination of efforts by our community to prepare for the next BRAC round and prevent and/or mitigate any potential adverse impacts.
As mayor of Radcliff, my opponent stopped funding One Knox years ago, I continue to see the work and mission of One Knox as being highly important to the economic success of our community and strongly support its continued funding from our local governments!
Do you see any services provided by both County and City government where it would be more cost effective to combine these efforts?
YES – I support any and all opportunities we have to combine redundant services and functions to create efficiencies and more effective use of our limited resources.
I believe we could benefit from combining services and/or efforts for the following areas throughout our county:
- Production and distribution of safe drinking water
- Collection and treatment of wastewater
- Planning and Development
- Dispatching of Emergency Services
- Solid Waste collection management and oversight
- Public Works
I also believe we could conserve resources by more closely aligning our fire protection and law enforcement services locally.
What strategic plans would you recommend in order to improve the finances of the Jail operations?
Reducing expenses while simultaneously increasing revenues is the solution to improving the Hardin County Detention Center’s financial outlook.
Statewide reforms initiated in 2012 significantly impacted state funding to county detention centers in fiscal year 2013 with the full impact occurring in fiscal year 2014. This impact is manifested primarily through the number of state prisoners housed in county detention centers.
County detention centers are paid a daily fee based on the number of state prisoners housed in the county’s facility. The more state prisoners housed on a daily basis, the more state funding there is for the county facility. State reforms dramatically reduced the number of state prisoners housed in local facilities.
Unfortunately, county facilities have many fixed costs that do not proportionally change based on the number of prisoners housed. These costs include annual debt payments on the facility, property and liability insurance, heating and cooling costs, and base staff costs. Much like a hotel, there is a finite number of spaces at the facility to house prisoners. The higher the number of state prisoners with payments from the state, the higher the revenue is for the detention center to meet its financial obligations.
The last few months of Fiscal Year 2014 saw an increase in the number state prisoners housed in the county’s facility; unfortunately not soon enough to offset the previous three-quarters of the fiscal year. The trend of increased state prisoners has continued into the first quarter of this fiscal year and has returned the volume of state prisoners to near the levels that existed prior to the state’s reforms in 2012.
To assist in reducing expenses, in January 2013 Fiscal Court partnered with our new Commonwealth Attorney to revitalize the “Rocket Docket” concept to accelerate the process of reaching the final sentencing phase of many pending criminal cases. Until final sentencing occurs, prisoners are the financial responsibility of the county. The sooner the case is completed, the sooner the county starts receiving the state’s payment. Rocket Docket dramatically reduces the time to achieve final sentencing in many cases.
Fiscal Year 2014 was the first full year of the return of this program to Hardin County. The reduction in the number of prisoners the county is financially responsible for has recently been reduced by as much as 30% per month. Rocket Docket dramatically reduces the time a prisoner is the county’s financial responsibility, and is greatly assisting with improving the finances of operating the detention center.
Fiscal Court’s actions to contract medical services and food services instead of providing those services in-house is also saving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Contract medical services reduced the detention center’s annual medical costs by approximately $250,000 and our costs to HMH by almost $500,000 annually.
The county will always bear some financial burden for the operation the county’s detention center. Historically the county has provided $3 million, including almost $900,000 in debt service payments, of the Jails $8 million annual budget. Our goal is to maintain the county’s subsidy, not including debt service, at $2 million annually.
What strategic plans would you recommend in order to improve the finances of the Landfill operations?
Hardin County Government purchased the Pearl Hollow Landfill property in the mid 1990s with development and construction quickly following. The initial land purchase, development, and construction costs of the landfill exceeded $17 million by the time the site opened to receive its first ton of waste in October 1997. Numerous expansion projects have occurred during the subsequent decade totaling another $9 million.
Since the landfill’s inception, county government has contracted with a third party operator for daily operations. Rumpke of Kentucky operated the county’s landfill from its opening in 1997 until September 2008.
The initial landfill operating contract required a guaranteed waste disposal stream of 300,000 tons per year. When this contract was due to be re-bid in 2008, NO entity – including Rumpke – would bid on a new contract requiring a guaranteed minimum amount of waste. This was a result of rising fuel costs increasing the cost of trucking waste long distances to the landfill, as well as the general condition of the economy. Rumpke made it very clear if they were awarded the new contract, the tonnage would be substantially less than the previous contract guaranteed. Without guarantees, Rumpke and Santek Environmental both believed the volume of waste would be 180,000 tons or less per year. Our current waste stream (almost entirely from within Hardin County) is approximately 150,000 tons per year.
Santek won the new contract and began operating the landfill in September 2008. Since assuming operation of the landfill, Santek has undergone more than 20 quarterly compliance inspections from state regulators with “no violations noted” during virtually every evaluation.
With the decline in annual tonnage and no way to significantly increase volume in the short term, a dramatic change to landfill associated expenses was the only solution. Some of our significant actions to realign expenditures with revenue are as follows:
- An extensive permit modification was completed and filed with the state’s Division of Waste Management to significantly expand the disposal area of our landfill. This will increase our total capacity by 400%, thereby extending the life of our landfill to nearly 100 years at current usage rates. Based on this significant increase in the landfill’s life, the county’s expense for annual escrow payments was reduced last year from $250,000 to $35,000. This escrow is the funding set aside to pay for the closing and monitoring requirements of the landfill once it has reached capacity. Obviously, with many more years for funding to accrue, the annual payments could be dramatically reduced.
- The county successfully obtained a bond rating upgrade from Single A1 to a Double A2 rating, thereby placing the county in the top ten local governments in the state and among the top 15% in the nation for bond ratings. Our high bond rating greatly enhanced the county’s credit risk, thereby allowing us to “refinance” existing landfill debt at a significantly lower rate and extended period. This restructuring, combined with paying off some shorter term debt, resulted in lowering the landfill’s annual debt payments by more than $800,000 per year.
- Efficiencies and savings were also implemented in other areas such as reducing $25,000 in annual landfill engineering costs and $50,000 in evaluation and testing requirements in recent years.
Even with $1.1 million of combined annual savings in landfill expenditures, approximately 180,000 tons of waste is still required annually to meet our solid waste expenses. The current projected tonnage rate is 155,000 tons. The county and Santek are aggressively seeking additional waste streams to increase tonnage intake. Just last month we awarded the county’s waste collection contract to Red River Waste Solutions that immediately brings another 10,000 tons of waste annually to our landfill. The county, Santek, and Red River are aggressively working to attract additional volumes of waste to the landfill.
Over the next few years, much of the debt on the landfill will be paid off. The last issuance of debt will be completed in 2019. At that time, the landfill revenues will significantly exceed expenditures with just Hardin County waste disposal alone. In the mean time, we will continue investigating and implementing innovative ideas to enhance revenue such as we have done with the collection and sale of methane gas, selling the Carbon Credits derived from the environmentally friendly use of that methane gas which netted $411K in less than 3 years, and the sale of timber that netted $415K in less than 2 years.
The County does not currently have an employee occupational or business license tax; do you see a need to implement these taxes for the purpose of economic development for both existing small business as well as potential new business being attracted to the area?
NO – I do not see a need to implement these taxes at this time.
Hardin County has done exceptionally well in providing excellent infrastructure to retain existing business and attract new business without these taxes. Government’s role in economic development is to create a climate of sound infrastructure and business friendly tax policy to attract and retain business and industry. Some communities impose taxes and then partially rebate funds to provide an incentive. I believe it is better to not impose them at all – this creates a very fair incentive for business and industry to locate and stay in our community. Since the recession started in late 2008, our industrial base has grown by 23%. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was prior to the recession. I believe our local tax policies are serving us well.
Do you see any change to the governance structure of the Hospital?
NO – not at this time.
The Affordable Care Act is dramatically changing the way healthcare is delivered and how healthcare providers are compensated. The Board of Trustees for Hardin Memorial Health is currently comprised entirely by the members of Hardin County Fiscal Court. It is very rare to have a hospital board comprised totally from elected government officials.
Because of our positions as elected officials, Kentucky’s open records and meetings laws apply to all hospital board meetings. This puts Hardin Memorial Health at a distinct disadvantage when competing with all other hospitals in the region. No other hospital in our region competes with this same disadvantage.
In the future, there may come a time that we need to consider a different model for providing the governance function at Hardin Memorial. However, whatever that decision may be, it is essential that ownership of the hospital remain with Hardin County Government.
Do you think the County should keep the Hospital or eventually sell it?
Hardin County Government should continue to always own Hardin Memorial Health!
Will you be a supporter of the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce? For Judge Executive, will you attend the President Circle Members meeting and the Regular Board Meetings?
YES!
For the past twelve years I have been a strong supporter and active board member of the Chamber(s). I am a very strong supporter of the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce. I rarely miss a board meeting or miss a monthly chamber luncheon. I attend President Circle meetings as my schedule permits and actively support the Kentucky State Chamber!
