Mayor announces veto of 10 city jobs added by Council

Mayor Linda Gorton today announced vetoes of 10 new City positions the Urban County Council added to the City’s budget.

“I cannot support the precedent this sets of increasing our projected revenue by $750,000 without justification, to add more recurring costs in the 10 new positions Council approved,” Gorton said. “I do not want to make choices today that could potentially force us to increase taxes in future years.”

Gorton said in putting together her budget plan for the 24-25 fiscal year, the administration “carefully vetted” new position requests. “My team and I approached this budget with the desire to do as much good as possible with the guiding principle that we would protect the taxpayer and the City’s long-term financial health,” Gorton said. “We assessed every expenditure, especially recurring costs and the potential impact they would have on future budgets. We carefully vetted the new position requests, and while there were many good ones unfunded in my budget, I felt we had to make sure we were living within our means.”

In the budget it passed, Council made some “very valuable contributions that will help our residents in many ways,” Gorton said. “Generally, I have greatly appreciated Council’s careful deliberations and thoughtfulness in this budget process.”

Under Gorton’s leadership, Lexington has been ranked as one of the best financially managed cities in the country.

Each year, Lexington bases its revenue estimate on a recommendation from a team of economists. Based on that revenue projection, the Mayor presented her original budget plan to Council on April 16. After considering her recommendations, Council gave final approval to its budget with increased spending at its June 13 meeting.

“Increasing a revenue estimate arbitrarily so more can be spent is not a good budgeting practice,” Gorton said. “It leads to over spending, especially when recurring expenses are involved. I take a more careful approach.”

The Mayor has a line-item veto, which means she can veto individual expenditures included in the budget. If Council decides to override her vetoes, it should take that action prior to the end of the fiscal year (June 30) in order to ensure a final budget is in place. An override vote requires the support of nine Councilmembers. 

Gorton’s predecessor, Jim Gray, and Foster Pettit, the first mayor of Lexington’s merged government, are the only other Mayors who have vetoed items in the budget.