Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg wants to cut about $5 million in spending as city officials look to offset a portion of a projected $14 million budget deficit next fiscal year.
One way those cuts could come is by terminating city employees, Greenberg said.
He asked city department directors during a meeting earlier this week to begin identifying potential positions to cut. He did not say how many positions he anticipates could be eliminated when asked Wednesday afternoon.
The looming deficit and potential layoffs come as Greenberg looks to increase city spending by more than 10%. He’s also publicly touting a $50 million budget surplus, which he said is due, in large part, to investment revenue. But the surplus is a one-time infusion in a city that is seeing revenues dip.
Greenberg expressed the need to cut expenses as he ended his annual budget address to Metro Council last month. He said city government needs to remain “flexible and nimble” amid federal funding uncertainty and to do so department leaders will “take a careful look at their operations and determine where we can eliminate expenses and roles, many through existing vacancies.”
“I call this Louisville Metro Government’s least necessary spending,” he said.
Greenberg’s proposed budget is about $1.26 billion.
More than 5,000 people work for Louisville Metro Government. Greenberg’s spokespeople, Kevin Trager and Allison Martin, did not respond to KyCIR’s questions Thursday seeking additional details on the number of employees who work on an at-will status.
Metro Council member Tammy Hawkins, a District 1 Democrat and chair of the council’s majority caucus, said Thursday she’d not heard of any potential layoffs. After KyCIR reached out to Hawkins, she said she contacted Greenberg’s office and Julie Carr, the mayor’s director of intergovernmental affairs, told her the need for cuts “doesn't necessarily mean that employees would be laid off.”
Hawkins criticized Greenberg’s budget for being “vague.”
She said she’s still dissecting the budget and will look to have a conversation with Greenberg about alternative cost-saving measures.
“I don't think that anybody that sits on Metro Council is OK with displacing employees,” she said. “That's unacceptable.”
A spokesman for the council’s minority Republican caucus said council members will receive a budget update at a hearing Thursday evening “where I assume they will be bringing this up.”
