The City of Taylor Mill, in conjunction with Independent Auditing Firm VonLehman & Company recently wrapped up all of our auditing requirements for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2015.  As part of the process we use feedback from the auditing process to continually strengthen internal controls and improve operating efficiency.  As in the past, the Audit demonstrated no instances of non-compliance under the Government Accounting Standards Board Guidelines.  In summary, the City is in sound financial condition and continues to operate on a debt free basis.

  

The Taylor Mill City Commission and Staff are proud to acknowledge our continued debt free status.  As you may know we work hard to provide high quality government services for the lowest dollar amount possible.  Keeping taxes low is a major challenge in this day and age with significant rising costs associated with the provision of Police and Fire Services and providing high quality skilled and specially trained individuals.  Recently, we have lost several of these individuals to other jurisdictions due to lower median market salaries.  In response to that  the City Commission increased salaries for staff members in an effort to retain our talented and highly skilled personnel, especially all of our emergency first responders.  We anticipate these increases will allow us to be more competitive with other surrounding employers/communities.  As a service provider we recognize that the quality of staffers who provide the service is essential to its successful delivery.   

   

A full copy of our audit for July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 can be found on our website at www.taylormillky.gov for your review. 

  

Additionally, we want to inform you that the Kenton County Fiscal Court is proposing to replace the current 911 infrastructure by upgrading the system from analog to an 900 megahertz system.  This upgrade which will require all new radio equipment to be purchased is certainly long overdue and will enhance the response time of emergency responders and the overall safety of all.  While the upgrade is necessary to maintain the integrity of the system it comes at a significant cost to the cities of Kenton County as members of the Fiscal Court are proposing that cities pay their proportionate share of the upgrade which will be placed in city police and fire vehicles.  The current estimated cost of the upgrade for Taylor Mill is $175,362.00 with a transition date of 2018.  Kenton County Judge Knochelman will be in attendance at an upcoming Commission Meeting to discuss more details of the proposal with the Taylor Mill City Commission.  As more information becomes available we will keep you informed.   

  

In closing, many of you may not be aware that I have been selected to serve on the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) Executive Board.  This board is responsible for overseeing the operations of KLC in addition to developing city friendly legislation during the KY General Assembly Legislative Sessions conducted in Frankfort.

   

For example, one type of legislation that will be presented on behalf of KLC to our State Legislators involves Local Road Aid Programs.  Currently, KY's formula for funding the construction and maintenance of secondary and rural roads has remained unchanged since its enactment in 1948. This formula is focused primarily on highway mileage and geographic size without consideration for highway usage.  As a result highway funding often flows toward lesser traveled rural roads at the expense of more heavily traveled urban streets.  By statute 48.2% of Kentucky Motor Fuel Taxes are distributed to local jurisdictions as follows:

  

County Roads = 18.2%

Rural Secondary Aid = 7.7%

City Municipal Road Aid = 7.7%

   

As you can see by the distribution the amount of road aid money received by Cities is far less then the Counties when in fact there are more road miles in cities than in most Ky counties.

  

The Kentucky League of Cities is trying to change this formula to funnel more road aid money to cities such as ours that contain most of the road miles driven in a given county.  Currently 61% of annual miles traveled in KY are on local rural roads that receive 85% of road aid funds allocated to local governments.  Conversely local roads account for 39% of the vehicle miles traveled but cities only receive 15% of the total distribution through the state road aid formulas.  Because of this disparity cities must use more city tax dollars to repair roads and streets.  Whereas if the was changed cities would receive more money from the state and then be able to repair more streets and roads without out using more and more general fund city tax dollars.  We support KLC in their efforts to reform State Aid Money!

  

Please have a safe and happy summer, and contact any of your local elected officials or City Administrator Jill Cain  Bailey at 859.581.3234 or info@taylormillky.gov for further assistance.   

   

Warmest Regards, 

Daniel L. Bell, Mayor
City of Taylor Mill