Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg releases 2024 budget proposal: 4 key items

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg has unveiled his first proposed budget, with several notable investments.

The Fiscal Year 2024 budget has to be approved by Metro Council, which will review Greenberg's proposal in the coming weeks. The proposal calls for a 3.5% increase over the previous operating budget, at $868 million. Combined with $225 million in the city's capital budget, the total proposed budget comes to about $1.1 billion.

It has early bipartisan support in Metro Council, with Budget Committee Chair Rick Blackwell telling reporters the proposal was met with excitement by other members. They'll take a closer look at the numbers in early May, he said, with hopes to approve it in June.

Metro Councilwoman Paula McCraney, a Democrat who serves as majority caucus chair, said the budget appears to be "win-win for the community."

And Republican Councilman Anthony Piagentini, the minority caucus chair, said the plan was "hands down the best initial proposed budget I've ever seen" in his nearly five years in office.

Here's a quick look at some key items in the proposal Greenberg unveiled Thursday:

A boost for LMPD

Louisville Metro Police took a hard hit early this year with the release of a scathing report from the U.S. Department of Justice, which laid out numerous civil rights violations and dozens of recommended remedial measures following a nearly two-year investigation.

Greenberg's budget would pump an additional $6.8 million into LMPD's current budget of a little more than $220 million. If passed, $1 million will go toward recruiting to help increase the number of officers (the department was short about 300 officers as of September 2022). Replacing ballistic protective gear and purchasing license plate readers for high-crime areas around Jefferson County would each be allocated $1.5 million.

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An additional $2.1 million will go to hire 30 positions to help implement reforms as recommended by the Department of Justice, which is negotiating a consent decree to promote integrity and ensure recommended measures are put in place.

Outside LMPD, the budget calls for other measures to push back against violence. These include investments in a new Department of Group Violence Intervention and more 911 mental health deflection services, along with nearly $1 million for public safety measures like body cameras for people transporting juveniles between Youth Transitional Services facilities.

Investment in downtown

Downtown Louisville is "the heart of the city," Greenberg said, where residents from all 26 council districts come to work. The mayor wants to push millions of investment dollars into the region.

The proposal includes $8 million for a "downtown revitalization fund" aimed at attracting jobs and housing in the Central Business District, along with a $6 million subsidy fund for grocery stores in downtown and other parts of the city that lack access to such businesses.

About $4.6 million will be used for downtown lighting; nearly $1 million will go to expand Louisville's community ambassador program providing hospitality, safety and outreach services in the district; $100,000 will be put toward reimagining the Belvedere, a seven-acre elevated space between Fourth and Sixth streets with an open lawn that can host events.

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The edges of downtown will also see investment, with a little more than $3 million for LouMed medical and educational campus, a collaboration between four regional colleges and health care systems. Another $5 million will fund a community and athletics complex for Simmons College and the St. Stephen Family Life Center in the nearby California neighborhood.

Affordable housing

More than $20 million in the budget will be used for affordable housing and addressing homelessness in Louisville.

Greenberg's proposal sets aside $15 million for the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund, providing loans for investments in affordable housing. Millions more would go toward other public housing investments, including $2 million to the proposed "community care campus" that will provide medical services and temporary housing for the city's homeless population; $2 million to the Goodwill Opportunity Campus; and $1 million to acquire the Watson Lane Elementary School building and redevelop it as affordable housing in southwestern Louisville.

Streets of Louisville

Greenberg's budget also calls for a major investment in improving travel through Louisville – including preliminary planning for a city Department of Transportation.

The mayor pegged $26 million for street paving, nearly $5 million for traffic signal rebuilds, $3 million for sidewalk repairs and $1 million for alley paving. The budget also has $540,100 for five positions to manage $150 million in federal money set aside for infrastructure projects in Louisville and $2 million for the ongoing Preston Corridor Master Plan project.

Greenberg is also eyeing opening a Louisville Metro Department of Transportation, with $250,000 set aside to plan its launch. The mayor said the department would take some responsibilities currently handled by Louisville Metro Public Works, Codes and Regulations and Planning and Design, among other agencies, and consolidate them into one group that would "create a whole new approach to the way that we view transportation in our community."

The department would focus not just on getting “the most amount of cars from Point A to Point B," he said, but work to improve walkability in neighborhoods and build a better public transportation system, working closely with the TARC bus system.

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville 2024 budget: 4 key items from Mayor Craig Greenberg's plan