Fiscal Court addresses tabled tax hike, board appointments

The McCracken County Fiscal Court brought back a couple of items tabled at their last meeting.

One of those items was the tax hike sought by the McCracken County Health Department. Citing increased pension costs, they were seeking an increase of $.06 per $1,000 of property value. The court approved the increase but asked the health department to set up a separate account for that extra $.06 per $1,000 in order to maintain it specifically for the pension costs.

Another action that had been tabled was the appointment of Bill Bartleman, Andrew McGlenon, John Mann, Tom Padgett, and Alexandra Sherwood to the Paducah-McCracken County Convention Center Board. 

During the discussion of the appointments two weeks ago, Commissioner Edwin Jones said he wanted some safeguards in place regarding how board members are determined and appointed. Jones cited the amount of money the board gets from the county in the form of transient room tax dollars. That action was tabled, once again, because the Paducah-McCracken County Convention Center Board is meeting Tuesday, and the bylaw changes are on the agenda. 

Another item of note from the meeting was a presentation from Bruce Wilcox of Greater Paducah Economic Development, highlighting some of the growth and opportunity in Paducah and McCracken County. 

Wilcox mentioned the expansion of SOLminer, a cryptocurrency mining company, coinciding with a substation upgrade at Industrial Park West. The company's total investment in McCracken County is expected to be $75 million, including 26 full-time jobs averaging a rate of $67,000 a year.

Wilcox also told the Court that GPED is partnering with several other counties in western Kentucky to create a regional marketing campaign in an effort to capitalize on proximity to the new electric vehicle battery systems factories in west Tennessee and near Glendale, Kentucky. He also said that McCracken County is attracting attention in regard to the types of large economic development projects that have passed over this area in the past.