On Tuesday, the McCracken County Fiscal Court held a budget workshop to discuss the county's $1 million budget shortfall.
Historically the county has provided the Senior Citizens Center with $25,000 annually, aside from last year when the they gave the center just over $4,000. This year they're proposing cutting funding to the center entirely.
West Kentucky Star spoke with Commissioner Eddie Jones about the proposal. Jones says that in order to receive funding from the county, groups must first fill out a form, providing their current and past financial situation.
According to Jones, unless there's a typo on the the Senior Center's 990 form, as of 2018 the center had $1.6 million in investments, and $61,000 in investment income.
"One of the things that we're looking at is, well, how much money do you have? Maybe you have more money than we do. And in this case that appears to be true, at least from the 990 tax forms that were filed, it shows quite a bit of investment income," He said.
"It's a little difficult for me to just leap frog over that when we have deputy sheriff's and jailers who are underpaid." Jones continued, "Obviously this program is wonderful and we don't want the program to fail, but if the program is already adequately funded through something that's happened in the past, then it might not be the best use of tax dollars at the moment."
Jones says he's just trying to be careful with taxpayer money.
He reiterated that he doesn't want the senior center to fail. He says they are very supportive of the program, and if they need tax dollars, they will go back and look at it again.
"At this point, based on their 990, they appear to be making enough money that maybe they don't necessarily need the tax grant." He said, "Until I see more, I'm going to be a little more careful with the tax dollars."
You can see the full budget workshop meeting below.
