No one wants payroll tax hike, but FCPS officials foolishly keep pushing it | Opinion
When it came to the Fayette County schools and their cash-strapped budget, Monday’s school board meeting was full of confusion, obfuscation, doublespeak, triple-speak and downright gobbledygook.
It could use some plain speaking, so here I go.
It took a long time, nearly two hours, for the board to get to the oversized elephant in the room: The contingency fund that has gone from $42 million to … well, we don’t know what it is now.
Instead, we got a lot of hemming and hawing from Deputy Superintendent Houston Barber and Rodney Jackson, the director of financial accounting, who said he noticed problems — “there is a concern here we might not be at actual numbers,” — and that he alerted someone, just not the school board.
The five members didn’t find out until they got an email from Superintendent Demetrus Liggins on the evening of Aug. 17. (Sidenote: Liggins reports to the board.)
“We weren’t made aware of that as a board,” said board member Monica Mundy. “ I watched all the (budget) work groups, and none of the conversations that we’ve had has ever led me to believe we’ve gone into the contingency to that amount.”
Incidentally, it’s against board policy to spend down the contingency fund without board authority, but that point was basically ignored.
Jackson also didn’t make it clear to the citizens’ budget work group, whose members rightfully thought it was weird you wouldn’t use some of the contingency fund to pay down a $16 shortfall. This is what Jackson actually told the group on the evening of July 15:
“The contingency balance, we don’t know yet because it’s not an audited number. We won’t really get that number until November. That’s too late to make decisions by the time we know. We can have an idea of what it’s going to be by the end of September, but we don’t know what that number is going to be because there are too many variables they relate to that we don’t know with the uncertainty and unknowns.”
That’s a lot of words to say … not much. They keep hiding the real numbers so we don’t even know how big the problem is.
All people want is a clear discussion about how much money is needed to balance the budget and what cuts are required to get it.
Instead of that, the board held a long, rambling discussion about the payroll tax, which no one wants! Not the public, not parents, not the budget work group members who represent places like Keeneland and UK. Here’s a lesson for you: If you try to sneak something in without telling the public about it, you have soured the whole endeavor.
No one wants this, except a few school board members and district officials, who believe it would spare them from difficult budget cuts. Carla Blanton, chairwoman of Commerce Lex, basically said they had misconstrued the work of the budget work group.
“We are disappointed and disheartened that the presentation at last night’s school board meeting so summarily dismissed the recommendations of the work group, which comprises members of all segments of the community and was selected by FCPS,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
“In particular, the focus on – and characterization of -- the occupational license tax being a recommendation of the work group and the only solution without a negative consequence was misrepresented to the board. The tax was, by far, the lowest ranked option of a group that was, again, hand-picked by school leadership.”
Instead, district leaders kept going on about the state and national context: Federal cuts, static funding from the state, rising inflation. As the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy has noted, state funding for SEEK per pupil in Fayette County is down 20% since 2012-2013). If state SEEK had just kept pace with inflation since then, Fayette County would now have another $27 million a year.
Hey guys, two things can be true at the same time: The environment for public schools is quite difficult, and you need to balance the books instead of covering your asses.
Some plain speaking from parents
One of the only presenters who spoke clearly and forcefully was Michael George of Compass Municipal Advisors, who noted that all this messing about with the contingency fund could have a very bad result for the district’s bond rating. Which would make it more expensive to renovate and build.
Another was board member Monica Mundy, who said she understood that inflation and other factors are affecting school districts around the state and country..
“I think one of the biggest differences I’ve seen with our neighbors is once they saw they had these budget challenges, they ripped the Band-Aid off,” she said. “We get a lot of surprises along the way — the first was $16 million short, then pop up passing a tax, and now we’ve spent a portion of our contingency ... that’s why we’ve lost some of the community’s trust.”
The only other plain speaking came from public commenters, such as Rachel Buser.
“How totally disappointing the last six months have been for Fayette County stakeholders,” she said. “This contingency situation is, to use your words, it is a crisis, and to continue to play semantics and pretend the public is not educated enough to understand is not completely wrong, it’s completely offensive.”
Frequent school board critic Matthew Vied didn’t hold back either.
“Let’s be very, very clear about a few things, you are absolutely in a crisis,” he said.
“ FCPS is facing a severe financial crisis, and you guys sat here for an hour, talking about the contingency fund— what we can do it, can we use it to fill a budget gap. YOU HAVE ALREADY SPENT THE FUND DOWN TO 2 PERCENT.”
People are calling for Liggins’ head, but he clearly still has the total support of three board members. Plus, getting someone new and probably even worse won’t help things right now. He needs to fix these problems, including those posed by his leadership team.
Back in February, Liggins wrote in an op-ed column in the Herald-Leader: “In the face of historic inflation, uncertainty regarding federal funding, and rising personnel costs, our approach will be guided by a steadfast commitment to excellence, transparency and fiscal responsibility.”
Last Friday, he said he would launch an internal review of financial procedures and vowed to cut costs in the district.
Amidst all the talk on Monday night, we heard little about any of those things.
Show us what you’re talking about, Dr. Liggins, or what little support you have left will fade away quicker than your shrinking contingency fund.
This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 11:45 AM.
