Latest news with #LouisvilleMetroCouncil
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Artificial intelligence and a new firehouse: Greenberg unveils $1.2 billion budget proposal
From using artificial intelligence for Metro Government operations to funding the first new firehouse in over a decade, Mayor Craig Greenberg unveiled a number of new priorities in his proposed $1.2 billion city budget. Now, the Louisville Metro Council will work to amend the budget over several weeks, before approving a finalized version in the summer. In the budget proposal, released on April 24, Greenberg prioritized funding for public safety initiatives, including a new drone program, three new economic development funds and additions to the Community Care Campus, among others. However, several notable projects received no funding this year, including the reconstruction of the Belvedere, the universal pre-K non-profit Thrive by Five and a proposed first responder training center. The projects have not been canceled, but the administration did not believe the organizations were in a position where they needed new funding this budget cycle. Instead, Greenberg chose to invest the limited funds into other areas. He also hopes to cut $5 million from city department spending, though it will not be a blanket 1% cut, as it was for the 2025 fiscal year. Here's where Greenberg wants to put money for the 2026 fiscal year: Greenberg announced plans to spend a "significant portion" of the city's budget on emergency services — from the Louisville Metro Police Department to the Louisville Fire Department to Alcoholic Beverage Control, and several others. He also wants to launch a new drone program, which would make drones available to first responders at fires, hostage standoffs and other emergency scenes. Greenberg also proposed to fund a new fire station for Engine 23, which is located next to Iroquois Park. The station is too small to house female firefighters, due to constraints on space for beds and bathrooms. Greenberg hopes the new funding, if approved, could change that. In preparation for the proposed development around Slugger Field, Greenberg hopes to invest in infrastructure improvements for the "Diamond District." This will include paving, tree planting and plans to develop under a nearby overpass, though it is unclear what that could look like. Three new development funds, each with $3 million, will be allotted to the East, West and South Ends. The South End fund will be focused on spurring business development, while the East End fund has been earmarked for infrastructure improvements. The last $3 million will go to Simmons College for its new STEM-focused campus near Shawnee Park. Greenberg has allotted money for KentuckianaWorks, Goodwill, the AHOY Children's Museum, One West and the YMCA's Early Learning Readiness program. Greenberg intends to automate some government functions with artificial intelligence, including open records requests and planning and zoning permits. He also proposed a 5% raise for all non-union city employees and matching government city employees' contributions to a tax-free, early childhood flexible savings account. His budget includes $30 million for paving, $2 million for sidewalks and $1 million for alleys — in addition to the $3 million East End Infrastructure Improvement Fund. Greenberg earmarked $750,000 to external agency arts organizations, $750,000 to violence prevention external agency programs and $750,000 to social service external agencies. Parks could also get a bump in deferred maintenance money, with the amount going from $2.9 million in the last budget to $3.2 this budget. The full budget proposal will be available on the government's website. More: Greenberg unveils Kentucky Derby guest list for 2025. Here's who's on it This story will be updated. Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@ or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville mayor pitches AI, new firehouse, pay raises in new budget
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Smoking will be allowed again inside some Louisville businesses. Here's what to know
It's official: Louisvillians will soon be able to smoke inside cigar bars. Louisville Metro Council voted Thursday to create an exemption to the city's smoking ordinance. It allows patrons to smoke inside businesses that make at least 15% of their revenue from selling cigars or tobacco products. While there are a few rare places where cigars can be smoked indoors, including Derby City Gaming Downtown, the change would expand where indoor cigar smoking is allowed. "I think this is going to be a tremendous benefit to our community, aligned with our tourism industries, particularly around bourbonism, horse racing and others," said Councilman Anthony Piagentini, the ordinance's sponsor. The exemption does not include cigarettes or other smoking products. The ordinance also requires a smoke-free area for the delivery of items or mail and prohibits cigar smoke from passing into other businesses that might share a wall or other space with the cigar bar. It passed 20-6 despite facing opposition from health experts — and coming less than four years after a similar Metro Council measure failed with a 15-11 vote. Councilman Markus Winkler voted against the ordinance both in 2021 and on Thursday. "As somebody who likes to go to restaurants, occasionally goes to a bar and does not smoke, I enjoy being able to go to those establishments without coming home and smelling like an ashtray," he said. "I think that any loosening of that regulation, to me, opens the door to further reductions of (the smoking ban)." Unlike cigarettes, cigar smoke is often not inhaled. However, the National Cancer Institute says there is "no safe level of tobacco use." Councilman JP Lyninger quoted from John Hopkins Medicine: "Compared with nonsmokers, regular cigar smokers are four to 10 times more likely to die from oral cancer, esophageal cancer and laryngeal cancer." Lyninger also voiced concerns for workers' health — a point he brought up previously at the March 18 Labor and Economic Development Committee. "Workers do not enter into a 100% voluntary activity when they accept employment," Lyninger said. "They are doing it because they need a job. They need to feed their kids, they need to put a roof over their heads." Council members Shameka Parrish-Wright, Paula McCraney, Ben Reno-Weber and Betsy Ruhe were the other "no" votes. Proponents of the ordinance, meanwhile, say it will boost tourism. Louisville Tourism President and Chief Executive Officer Cleo Battle submitted a statement in support of the ordinance. "We know from countless conversations with visitors that there is demand for a venue where they can enjoy a premium bourbon alongside a cigar," Battle wrote. "Currently, guests looking for this experience are leaving Louisville and taking their business to Southern Indiana, which puts our hospitality industry at a disadvantage." Joshua Pickett, founder of the Louisville Cigar Company, previously told The Courier Journal the legislation would be a significant boost for his business. Despite repeated requests for comment from The Courier Journal, Mayor Craig Greenberg's spokespeople did not respond to an inquiry on his perspective on the ordinance. Former Mayor Greg Fischer previously commended the council for rejecting the similar 2021 ordinance. In the Republican Caucus meeting on Thursday, Piagentini said Greenberg would not veto the legislation, but he also would not sign it into law. This means the new cigar bar exemption won't go into effect until the start of the next council meeting on April 24th. Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@ or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville lifts smoking ban inside some businesses
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Louisville weakens laws on lead exposure, rental registries amid pressure from state GOP
Louisville lawmakers and city staff spent years creating two ordinances aimed at making rental housing safer for tenants. Both have been eroded in a matter of weeks. Thursday night, Louisville Metro Council voted to repeal and rewrite Louisville's lead protections and eliminate some of Louisville's rental registry regulations — submitting to pressure from Republicans in Kentucky's state legislature who threatened to dismantle the regulations unless local lawmakers made significant changes. House Bill 173, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, would prohibit any local government in Kentucky from adopting or enforcing a 'policy that creates or maintains a registry of landlords or residential rental properties for any purpose." The bill specifically challenges Louisville's regulations on lead hazards in rental properties and the city's rental registry. Louisville's changes to both sets of regulations "were in response to my friends in the state General Assembly including Representative Dotson and Representative Nemes," sponsor and council Republican Caucus Chair Anthony Piagentini said in a February newsletter. "They brought attention to how overreaching our existing laws are while allowing us the opportunity to fix the problem locally." His rewrite of protections against lead hazards in rental properties represents a weakening of existing regulations, reducing proactive measures to catch hazards before a child is poisoned and shifting responsibility for identifying lead hazards to city departments instead of property owners. And another ordinance from Piagentini will remove parts of Louisville's rental registry, also threatened by HB 173, which requires all owners of rental properties to register with the city. The registry, first approved in 2016, is meant to keep track of rental property owners and help city inspectors enforce property maintenance rules. It was strengthened in 2022 to include random inspections and to make the registry 'public-facing.' Tom FitzGerald spent decades lobbying for environmental protections in Frankfort with Kentucky Resources Council and is currently of counsel for the organization. He warned Metro Council of succumbing to pressure from the state. "There's a children's book, 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,' and it teaches us that if you give a mouse a cookie, the next thing they'll ask for is a glass of milk," he said. "If you give in to the preemption threat of House Bill 173, it's highly unlikely you will ever restore what you lose or repair the damage done." Despite impassioned and pointed speeches from advocates, lobbyists and fellow council members, Piagentini's rewrite of Louisville's lead hazard protections passed 17-8. His ordinance will replace more stringent regulations approved unanimously by the council in 2022. In past statements, Piagentini said his rewritten ordinance is designed to specifically address the "small minority of landlords who don't follow the law," and avoid burying well-intentioned landlords under a mountain of regulations and expenses. The city's execution of the previous ordinance — first implemented in December — has been "at best, substandard," he said during debate Thursday. Before the repealed and replaced protections, there were no laws mandating landlords proactively identify and address lead hazards in rental properties. In the absence of such protections, roughly 10,000 Louisville children have been found with elevated levels of lead in their blood since 2005. Thousands more cases have likely gone unnoticed due to gaps in testing and a lack of proactive lead hazard assessments. Seven Democrats and one independent council member voted against Piagentini's rewritten regulations. "You don't listen to the experts. You don't listen to the data. You don't listen to people with direct experience," Councilwoman Shameka Parrish-Wright, an opponent to the ordinances and sibling to a lead poisoning victim, told the sponsor. "You're listening to the pockets of people who will never experience this." Other Democrats, though, argued that approving Piagentini's ordinance was the best way to keep some protections in place, fearing the state law could wipe out all of Louisville's protections. Each case of childhood lead exposure represents the risk of lifelong, irreversible damage to the brain. The neurotoxin threatens cognitive development, decision-making ability, memory, learning and behavior. Exposure can lead to difficulty in school, worse test scores, higher costs for special education programs or, eventually, the justice system. Louisville's 2022 lead protections came decades after action by some other U.S. cities, leaving thousands of local children vulnerable to poisoning, The Courier Journal found in a 2023 investigation. Local real estate interests have fought to reduce protections for years, the reporting found, despite evidence of similar regulations' success in improving public health outcomes in cities such as Rochester, New York. The newly passed regulations provide for a less proactive approach to addressing lead hazards than the previous laws, relying on code enforcement officers to identify risks during inspections or on tenants to request an inspection, rather than requiring property owners to ensure older rental properties are free of lead hazards. Experts and advocates expect the weakened protections will result in more Louisville children exposed to the neurotoxin — particularly in the northwest corner of the county, where children are more than nine times as likely to be exposed to lead, by one estimate. 'We purport to be a civilized society, and we purport to be a society that has a certain level of morality,' FitzGerald said. 'We don't knowingly expose kids — our kids or other people's kids — to lifelong health hazards because we can't be bothered.' Metro Council approved several shifts to Louisville's rental registry — though not without last-minute changes to Piagentini's original proposal and frustration over the threat of preemption from the state. "As someone who's had to be in Frankfort lobbying, they're rushing this, and they're trying to make us make the first move," Parrish-Wright said. "This feels like a bully move." Piagentini said he already had concerns with some of the rental registry provisions, pointing out that he voted 'no' on strengthening them in 2022. "From a philosophical, high-level point of view, (both ordinances) were worded in a way that assumed everybody was guilty, and then you had to prove your innocence," he said. Piagentini's original ordinance eliminated random inspections, fees, the requirement for landlords to sign a sworn affidavit on the safety of their properties and language reaffirming a Kentucky state law that protects tenants from retaliation. After comments in a committee meeting from Councilman JP Lyninger, Piagentini added the language on tenants being protected from landlord retaliation back into the ordinance, saying he had "zero issue" with it, especially because it aligns with state law. Other council members successfully brought back some of the fees. In a showing of bipartisan support, councilmembers Markus Winkler and Kevin Kramer supported including one-time fees when property owners first register. Despite salvaging small pieces of the original ordinance, significant changes were passed including eliminating random inspections of rental units. The mandate for property owners to swear an affidavit that, to the best of their knowledge, all rental units were in compliance with city property rules, was also squashed. In a committee meeting, Piagentini said the affidavit 'had no impact on anything.' Some landlords have raised privacy concerns about the public-facing aspect to the rental registry, objecting to having their phone numbers or addresses published. Piagentini's ordinance aims to address some of these concerns, removing the physical address and phone number of the property owner if "the owner is not a corporation, partnership, or trust." Former council member Rick Blackwell pushed back against this idea, though, saying it is important for renters to be able to easily access their information. "It's a business," said Blackwell. "It's not a house anymore." However, some of the property owners' contact information will remain in the registry. The new legislation passed 21-4. With the original protections against childhood lead exposure in rental properties repealed and replaced, Louisville will now have different — and fewer — tools to prevent poisonings before they occur. The onus of catching lead in rental properties will now fall mostly to city staff at the Department of Codes and Regulations and the Department of Public Health and Wellness, removing much of the responsibility from property owners. It's unclear whether these city agencies have staff and funding to identify potential lead hazards in thousands of Jefferson County homes. Louisville's move to narrow protections for renters under threat of preemption joins a number of successful efforts by the General Assembly to erode the city's local control. In a caucus meeting Thursday, Democrats displayed internal struggle over whether to yield to Republicans, and debated whether state lawmakers could pass preemptive legislation against Louisville's regulations. "This has twisted my stomach in knots," said Councilman Andrew Owen. He appeared torn during debate and was ultimately among the Democrats who voted in favor. "I would rather have 50% instead of zero," said Councilwoman Donna Purvis, who consistently supported Piagentini's proposed changes as a means of salvaging some protections and local control. But numerous members in the council's left wing were holdouts on the changes — arguing Louisville should have forced Frankfort Republicans to move on their legislation first before relenting, and taken a more active position against the threat of preemption. As of Thursday, the state bill had not been heard in committee more than halfway through the legislative session. Lyninger said it was a "strategic mistake" for the Metro Council to amend these ordinances at Frankfort's behest, and pointed to how rare it is for state lawmakers to back off of preempting Louisville ordinances. "If I were in Republican leadership in Frankfort, I wouldn't be excited to be the party of lead poisoning children," Lyninger said. "I would much rather that the Louisville Metro Council took that plunge for me." Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@ or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter. Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal. Reach him directly at cgiffin@ or on X @byconnorgiffin. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville weakens protections for renters amid state GOP pressure
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Under pressure from state GOP, Metro Council considers loosening lead paint protections
Facing pressure of preemption from Republican lawmakers in Frankfort, the Louisville Metro Council is considering a complete rewrite of its existing regulations on lead paint hazards in rental properties. A proposal brought by Metro Council Republican Caucus chair Anthony Piagentini would repeal and replace an ordinance passed unanimously by the council in 2022, and implemented in December 2024. His proposal follows the introduction of House Bill 173 in the Kentucky General Assembly by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, which would eliminate Louisville's existing regulations designed to protect children from lead poisoning in rental properties. Under the new ordinance from Piagentini, the responsibility of assessing rental properties for potential lead hazards would be shifted from landlords to Louisville Metro's code enforcement officers. Officers would be trained to detect lead hazards in homes, and would be required to take all "reasonable steps" to identify lead hazards during residential inspections of pre-1978 properties. Tenants would also be able to request an inspection by appointment, with priority given to homes where children reside. The newly proposed ordinance keeps a backstop in place, requiring inspection of at least some rental properties proactively, before a child can be exposed to lead — but it lacks the more stringent processes and transparency of existing regulations, which require older properties to be assessed for lead hazards and registered to the city within a set number of years. "The current lead rental registry ordinance more proactively identifies and eliminates lead hazards in rental property and serves those most vulnerable," Connie Mendel, chief health strategist for Louisville's Department of Public Health and Wellness, said in a statement. The new proposal, she said, would "still allow for the identification of hundreds of rental properties that could have lead hazards as well as for the enforcement to remove those hazards." Piagentini's proposed ordinance could be Louisville's only option for maintaining local control of regulation on lead paint in housing, and salvaging some form of protections. Dotson's bill in the state legislature, poised to snuff out Louisville's existing protections entirely, has begun to gather cosponsors and would be received by a Republican supermajority in both chambers. Lead is a potent neurotoxin, threatening the developing brain of young children. Since 2005, roughly 10,000 cases of childhood lead exposure have been documented in Louisville, and experts believe many more have gone unnoticed due to a lack of testing. The effects of lead on cognitive development, decision-making ability, memory, learning and behavior are lifelong and irreversible. Exposure can lead to difficulty in school, worse test scores, higher costs for special education programs or, eventually, the justice system. Louisville's existing lead protections came decades after action by some other U.S. cities, leaving thousands of local children vulnerable to poisoning for years, The Courier Journal found in a 2023 investigation. Local real estate interests have fought to reduce protections for years, the reporting found, despite evidence of the regulations' success in improving public health outcomes in cities such as Rochester, New York. "There is no cure for lead exposure," said Liz McQuillen, chief policy officer for Metro United Way. Childhood lead poisoning "can have really lifelong impact for those kids and those families," she said, "and there is no way to mitigate that once the child is exposed." Piagentini's proposed ordinance came following talks with state representatives, according to Metro Council President Brent Ackerson. There are "negotiations between him and Frankfort Republicans," Ackerson said, that may address the state's concerns about Louisville's lead ordinance and prevent the state from passing House Bill 173. Dotson's state legislation has not yet had a committee hearing. Its introduction spurred intense pushback from child health advocates, who said the bill "would cause irreparable harm to thousands of children, reduce the availability of safe and healthy housing stock, and saddle future Louisvillians with the costs." In 2022, Piagentini voted in favor of the current regulations, which he's now working to repeal. At the time, he complimented Democratic sponsor Cassie Chambers Armstrong for doing "yeoman's work in pulling this together." However, Piagentini said he's had some concerns about the 2022 ordinance, both then and now. "Although I voted for it, and do firmly believe we need to continue to attack this problem, I voted on it because it was better than some alternatives," he said. "But it wasn't exactly what I would have done." Piagentini said he believes the current ordinance assumes "everybody was guilty, and then you had to prove your innocence." Instead, he said he wants to focus more on "bad actors." Piagentini's role in the rewrite of the ordinance is why the legislation was unusually assigned to the council's Government Oversight, Audit and Appointments Committee, rather than the Equity, Community Affairs, Housing, Health and Education Committee, Ackerson said. Piagentini is the vice chair of the government oversight committee, which is expected to consider his proposed ordinance Tuesday. While Piagentini said his role as vice chair was a contributing factor to the legislation's committee assignment, he also said it "doesn't easily fall in any particular committee," and the council debated on several places where it could be heard. Piagentini hopes to continue working with representatives in Frankfort, he said, to limit preemption and help Louisville retain its local control. Chambers Armstrong, who sponsored Louisville's existing regulations on lead hazards in rental properties, now serves in the state Senate. In a statement, she encouraged council members to remain focused on the spirit of her original legislation: protecting the health of thousands of Louisville children. "I hope that any changes made will continue to center the need to protect children from the lifelong harms of lead exposure," she said. "This means it is essential that we retain local control to safeguard Louisville's most vulnerable children." Piagentini's newly proposed ordinance "is not as focused on the proactive prevention, which is best practice," McQuillen said, but "it is still a way that Louisville would be able to retain some tools to address that problem that we have." If Piagentini's proposed changes are signed into law, and state lawmakers retreat on plans to intervene, Louisville Metro Government would take on a bigger role in protecting children from lead exposure, shifting the onus away from property owners. It's unclear whether the Department of Codes and Regulations has the staff and resources necessary to keep tabs on lead hazards in thousands of rental properties around Louisville. At least 67 code enforcement officers have been trained as certified lead risk assessors already, according to the city. And the changes would discard some of the city's efforts to implement the current laws, including building out a public-facing Lead-Safe Housing Registry. The Department of Public Health and Wellness has already invested nearly $500,000 to implement the program in addition to hiring new staff, according to the agency, and some of the spending could now be in vain. However, Piagentini said he believes his legislation could be "budget neutral or even budget-saving." He pointed to another ordinance he's proposed, which would eliminate required random inspections by code enforcement officers, allowing the agency to reallocate resources toward lead hazard detection. Studies indicate a return on investment for lead poisoning prevention. Every tax dollar put into lead remediation in ordinances like Louisville's represents a return of at least $17, according to research from Pew, based on the known social and economic costs of lead poisoning. And each case of childhood lead exposure may cost taxpayers, on average, $50,000 in lifetime education and crime reduction costs, by some estimates — an expense of roughly half a billion dollars for Louisville's documented cases in the last two decades. More: Louisville stood by as thousands of kids were poisoned by lead paint. Is hope on the horizon? Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal. Reach him directly at cgiffin@ or on X @byconnorgiffin. Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@ or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville lead paint protections may be rolled back amid GOP pressure
