In October 21st's Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting, Council allocated $2.265 million of the city's $6.29 million fund balance toward street safety projects, the removal of wayfinding signs, a new Neighborhood Voices project, and more.
🙋‍♀️ What is the fund balance
The fund balance is essentially leftover money from the previous budget year. The balance can come from several sources: more revenue or lower expenses than expected from the previous budget and money in the last budget that has not been spent yet.
The full FY25 fund balance is $189,495,051. However, the overwhelming majority of that money is already committed to be spent. Some obligations include $93 million to various capital projects, $6.5 million to the Health Insurance Reserve Fund, and $699k toward the Economic Contingency Fund.
The FY25 unassigned fund balance is just over $6.29 million. This is the money that Council has leeway to allocate toward various projects.
$4.03 million of the city's fund balance remains unassigned. Council can revisit that money in the future to fund other projects or initiatives.
The projects Council allocated fund balance dollars to are:
$50k to each Councilmember's Council Capital Fund ($750k total). Councilmembers can use these funds to support capital projects in Lexington, included new sidewalks, park improvements, or public art. (Requested by 8th District Councilmember Amy Beasley)
$700k to implement various recommendations from the STREEET Safety Task Force. (Vice Mayor Dan Wu; 3rd District Councilmember Hannah Legris; 4th District Councilmember Emma Curtis; 5th District Councilmeber Liz Sheehan; 9th District Councilmember Whitney Elliott Baxter; and 10th District Councilmember Dave Sevigny)
$365k to conduct a Roundabout Feasibility Study;
$50k for a Traffic Circle program;
$150k for a Crosswalk Signal Improvement Study;
$115k for increased street safety public engagement efforts;
$20k for a Signage Pilot in the Division Traffic Engineering.
$110k for pedestrian safety improvements at Bryan Avenue and Loudon Avenue. (1st District Councilmember Tyler Morton)
$20k to pilot a Neighborhood Voices Project that would host listening sessions with neighborhood residents, create stipends to support community leadership projects, and resources to help neighbors complete community-building projects. The pilot would be conducted in the Smithtown neighborhood. (Councilmember Morton)
$50k to support a newly created Boys and Girls Club chapter in Lexington. (Councilmember Morton)
$20k for enhanced programming at the Black and Williams Center (Councilmember Morton)
$50k to A Caring Place to implement a village senior care pilot project. (2nd District Councilmember Shayla Lynch)
$50k for new technical equipment for Code Enforcement staff. (Councilmember Lynch)
$55k to remove 77 of the city's wayfinding signs. (Councilmember Baxter)
$460k for solar panel grants to low- and moderate-income households through the Solarize Lexington program. (Councilmember Sheehan)
At-Large Councilmember James Brown withdrew his original request for $50k to support digital accessibility initiatives in the Office of Economic Development.
Council also decided to postpone At-Large Councilmember Chuck Ellinger's $475k request to support a microtransit pilot program from Lextran. You can learn more about Council's decision to postpone that allocation here.
Ideas for how to spend the fund balance include a roundabout study, improvements to the Black and Williams Center, and more money to Lextran for a microtransit pilot.
