As federal support is cut and public conservation efforts fall short in reaching rural Black farmers, one Black-led organization is creating new lifelines to protect historic legacies.
Last Tuesday, Councilmembers made their final changes to the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Budget! While these changes are fairly finalized, the Budget will still need to be officially adopted in a vote on June 12th at 6pm.
Most of the Link recommendations and individual Councilmember requests we covered last week were approved in some form or fashion. Unlike last year, the approved changes were either budget neutral or took money from existing sources — no additional funding needed to be added to the General Fund Revenue for the additions.
All of the Link recommendations were adopted. Those include:
A part-time Recreation Supervisor for the Black and Williams Community Center ($20k);
Two full-time horticulturalist technician positions in the Division of Enivornmental Services. Currently, this positions are part-time ($99k);
A Deputy Director of Accounting ($143k);
An additional Crisis Response Social Worker for the Community Crisis Co-Response Team ($40k).
The following individual Council requests were funded:
$250k for a Lextran Downtown Circulator Pilot. This would fund a trolley bus that would run through downtown from National Avenue to the Distillery District from 4pm to midnight on weekends. The pilot would start in April 2026 and run through the end of August 2026.
$250k for a microtransit pilot program. $250k would not support a meaningful pilot project, but Lextran could theoretically use the $250k to support other grant funding they may pursue for a microtransit pilot. You can read more about Lextran and microtransit later in this newsletter!
$390k to create a Lexington Tech Council to support new and existing local technology businesses ($300,000) and to support educational and job opportunity collaboration in the tech industry between employers, employees, and schools ($90k).
$250k in additional funding to the Sidewalk Connectivity Program.
All of the individual Councilmember requests listed above will be support by pre-funding. Pre-funding is when savings from one Fiscal Year are used to support purchases and programs for the next Fiscal Year.
In this case, between now and June 30th, the Department of Finance will have to identify $1.140 million in savings for the FY25 Budget that they can allocate toward these changes.
Councilmember Hil Boone withdrew his planned request for additional money to repair Jack’s Creek Pike, and Councilmember James Brown decided to move his request to support Community Action Council’s Work Where You Live program to the Fund Balance discussion in October.
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Watch the meeting: Council will give First Reading to the Budget on June 10th at 3pm. The Budget will receive Second Reading, and a final vote of approval, on June 12th at 6pm. You can attend both meetings in Council Chambers or watch them live on LexTV.
