Council Members Encourage Mayor To Use Rainy Day Fund

Several members of the Louisville Metro Council budget committee are encouraging Mayor Jerry Abramson to tap into the rainy day fund to help shore up a $20 million deficit.The Council has no say in how Abramson cuts the budget, but at their budget committee meeting Wednesday, several members advocated spending a portion of the $63 million held in reserve.An adequate rainy day fund is one of the criteria in municipal bond ratings. Council President Jim King says he doesn’t think using a portion of the fund would hurt Louisville’s credit.“If we got down to the point and we said ‘Okay, the $20 million is the number we need to get to and we’ve come up with $15 or $16 million and we have to cut to the bone to go any further,’ I would be willing, I think, for my part, to appropriate some money from the rainy day fund between now and the end of the year to do that," he says.Abramson has said it would be irresponsible to use the rainy day fund to cope with the current shortfall.