Politicians must be held accountable for their actions when it comes to Lexington growth | Opinion
Protect Lex is a grassroots political effort formed to ensure that land use issues are a focal point of Lexington elections. Linda Blackford’s recent editorial took issue with certain Protect Lex advertisements in the 5th District City Council race between Meredith Price and incumbent Liz Sheehan. These political advertisements provide important, factual information to voters in the 5th District: prior to the expansion vote, Liz Sheehan had a track record of opposition to expansion of the urban service boundary, including multiple quotes in the Herald Leader, and now that the expansion has been approved with Sheehan’s support it will come at a significant cost to Lexington taxpayers.
By voting for expansion, Liz Sheehan voted in opposition to the clearly stated positions of her constituents. An open records request issued shortly after the expansion vote revealed that in the month prior, Sheehan received nearly double the number of emails opposing the expansion compared to other council members. The records produced did not contain any constituent correspondence to Sheehan approving of expansion (of the 999 pages of documents produced there was only one constituent email to a council member supporting expansion). In addition to Blackford’s revisionist history, her ivory tower belief that “fewer and fewer people care” about preserving our agricultural land is not grounded in reality (see e.g. community On the Table responses, a recent report ranking Lexington #15 in Best Places to Live in the US, and Mayor Gorton’s two landslide victories on a platform of protecting our farmland). It is not just agricultural interests that want to protect our agricultural land; Lexington residents have long supported protecting our agricultural land and recognize the value it adds, both economically and as a defining characteristic of our city.
Further, Sheehan and others voted for expansion without knowing what the cost would be to taxpayers (compare to Congress and the Kentucky Legislature, which require fiscal notes that define the expected costs of legislation before it is voted on). We now know those costs will be significant, estimated at $570 million. According to the Urban Growth Master Plan, Lexington taxpayers will be responsible for $53 million in initial capital costs associated with the expansion and annual costs of $8.5 million to operate and maintain new facilities in the expansion area, with LexTran incurring an additional $939,000 in annual operating costs. (For context, LFUCG receives only $10 million per year in revenue from property taxes from all of Fayette County that it can use for its expenditures). The Master Plan estimates that LFUCG’s costs associated with expansion will outpace new revenues by $32-$48 million. While Sheehan tried to justify her vote by pointing to the issue of affordable housing, we have yet to see any credible data as to how the destruction of agricultural land will result in decreased housing costs.
Lastly, if Ms. Blackford wants to use her bully pulpit to critique the actions of outside groups that’s her prerogative. Yet her unfair reproval of Ms. Price – stating an unfounded “total fealty to horse farms” – goes beyond the pale. Blackford’s column conveniently fails to acknowledge the thousands of dollars of political contributions Ms. Sheehan accepted from developers and their political organizations since voting for expansion or explain why those donations don’t demonstrate a “total fealty” to developer groups.
Lexington deserves elected officials who represent the views of their constituents and make fiscally responsible decisions. Blackford’s attempted scapegoating, by blaming outside groups for the expansion vote, ignores the fact that it is politicians who must be held accountable for their actions.
Charlie Rowland is the chairman of Protect Lex.
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 2:20 PM.