ASHLAND — Ashland City Council unanimously approved a $82.6 million spending plan for the rest of 2024 during Tuesday night’s meeting.
This year’s appropriations passage marks the city’s quickest in Ashland Mayor Matt Miller’s memory. He called it “a record.” Council approved of last year’s appropriations on Feb. 7.
The appropriations for 2024 represent an 8.9% increase from 2023’s $75.8 million.
Larry Paxton, the city’s finance director, attributed the larger budget to the income tax collection reaching $20.1 million in 2023 — a 2.5% increase from 2022 figures.
Paxton said he hopes to recall some of the city’s debt in 2024. One of those debts, he said, belongs to a sewer line installed along U.S. Route 250. He also expects to be able to pay off a $1 million loan that council took out last year to help pay for the Claremont Avenue resurfacing project.
Miller said wages increased by 3% this year because of union contract agreements. Other personnel-related expenses also rose, such as medical insurance.
“But other than that there’s nowhere throughout those many line items … that you see any significant increase,” the mayor said. “We more or less stuck with what was actually spent in 2023.”
The mayor also mentioned talks he’s had with Ashland Police Chief Dave Lay about hiring more officers as the city anticipates growth.
“As we look to the horizon and see the potential for possibly 500 to 600 living units to be added in our city, it would make sense that we will need to add police to our force,” he said.
The police force is fully staffed at 32 officers. Lay has said in previous Ashland Source reporting that he expects needing two more officers to cover the newly-annexed part of town.