LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While the majority of Mayor Greg Fischer's state of the city address was on touting Louisville's accomplishments, he did issue a stern warning about the state's pension system.
"Without additional revenue, we now face the prospects of serious cuts in services that will impact every connection between Louisvillians and their city government - the number of police on our streets, the hours you can visit your local library, fire stations, maintenance in our public parks," he said.
It was the warning about possible cuts raised some concerns from city employees, like Tracy Dotson, the President of the Metro Department of Corrections Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 77.
"You're looking at burnout. You're looking at employee tiredness," Dotson said. "You're looking at serious life issues that some of my members have experienced already."
According to Dotson, Metro Corrections already has about 60 vacancies that need to be filled, and any more cuts to staff could jeopardize the safety of workers and the people lodged in Metro Corrections.
"To make sworn staff cuts basically is telling me that we're fine with operating with what we're operating with right now, sworn capacity-wise, and we're barely keeping our head above water as it is," he said.
Fischer said the city needs to find a way to fund the pension system, which he said is projected to be $50 million more per year within five years time, though he said the priority is finding the money through other avenues like raising taxes or special districts before looking at cuts.
"The emphasis on solving the pension problem should be on funding, responsible expense management and new revenue sources," he said.
"What have we looked at before cutting sworn corrections officers or sworn police officers or qualified EMTs and paramedics and EMS workers? Are there support programs, are there programs within the jail that have been looked at that can be cut?" Dotson said.
Dotson said he and other union leaders would like to be a part of the conversation with the mayor's administration if it decides that budget cuts will be necessary. In his question-and-answer session after the state of the city address, Fischer said he will be working with Metro Council on finding the pension money and will get input from the public before making any decisions.