After a typo in the City of Corbin's proposed annual budget last month, the City was finally ready to present and approve the newly revised 2022-23 annual budget at the Aug. 26 Special Called Meeting.
This year’s budget includes a $1 raise in hourly pay for all Corbin Fire Department employees and part-time Corbin Arena staff, and pay raises for department heads in public works, city hall maintenance, and recreation.
Last year, Corbin Arena staff was getting paid $8 an hour but will now see $9 an hour instead. Corbin Fire started at $9 and has since increased to $10, along with mandatory overtime.
$16,145,692 is reportedly available in the City's general fund compared to last year's $12,247,188. That’s $4 million more breathing room for the City to utilize this year.
Mayor Razmus reported that $1.9 million was set aside in a separate account from the American Rescue Plan Act, which will now go toward renovating the McBurney Center pool to get it ready for next season.
The largest departmental appropriation is the Corbin Arena, with $4.8 million. Followed by $4.8 million to Special Projects, along with $2.9 million allocated to General Government (city maintenance), $2.4 million to Corbin Police, and $1.9 million to Corbin Fire, while Public Works will receive $2.3 million.
“We’ve got a lot of good things happening,” said Corbin Mayor Suzie Razmus. “The Arena really knocked it out of the park last year so we allocated $4 million to the Arena.”
The City's budget also incorporates new radar equipment for Corbin’s Police patrol vehicles.
“The police are pretty well equipped,” said Mayor Razmus. “We really took care of them last year but you always want to do more!”
City Commissioner Alison Moore informed reporters that inflation was an obstacle when allocating the budget. “It made us have to really trim and cut and make some hard decisions,” she said.
Mayor Razmus added, “Well, we have worked our tail ends off on this.” She said, “I really do feel like it’s a good budget. I feel really confident that we’ve done a really good job!”
The 2022-23 budget will be in effect from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
Samantha Walden, Staff Writer at The Kentucky Daily