Occupational tax revenue up significantly in Whitley County

The Whitley County Fiscal Court received a little more money this fiscal year than anticipated.

During its regularly called monthly meeting on May 17, the fiscal court held readings of two budget amendment ordinances.

One budget amendment relates to $1,065,640 in unbudgeted receipts from the occupational tax ordinance. $563,513 comes from the occupation license fee and $500,127 from the occupation net profits tax.

The occupational tax sharing agreement between the fiscal court, Corbin and Williamsburg allows the county to keep 100 percent of the occupational tax revenue generated in the county outside of either city limits. Occupational tax revenue inside the two cities is split with each city keeping 75 percent of the occupational tax generated there and the county keeping 25 percent of the occupational tax revenue from the two cities.

Of these unbudgeted receipts, $378,900 will be distributed to Corbin, $123,000 to Williamsburg and the fiscal court will receive $563,740.

The other budget amendment ordinance was for $478,047 in unbudgeted receipts. The largest source of that funding was $248,164 in excess fees from the county clerk’s office.

In other business, the fiscal court:

• Approved a resolution related to setting rates for use of the Whitley County sanitation transfer station. There is a $25 charge for pick-up trucks and trailers, a $100 charge for single-axel dump trucks and a $200 charge for tandem dump trucks.

• Appointed Glenna Cordell to the Whitley County Public Library Board of Trustees for a four-year term.

• Approved a resolution related to a contract between the Whitley County Fiscal Court and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Department of Rural and Municipal Road Aid. Under the terms of the contract, Whitley County will received $365,715 in road aid funding, which will be paid primarily in two lump sums.

Under state law, 3 percent of the funding goes to fund an emergency road aid account that entities can request funding from in the event of an emergency.

• Accepted a $36,500 bid from American Detention Services for 30 new door locks, which are part of a project to replace locks at the Whitley County Detention Center.

• Approved the $183,400 Whitley County Tourism Board budget for fiscal year 2022-2023, which includes a $100,000 surplus from the prior year. About $60,000 of that funding comes from the transient room tax or the hotel/motel tax.

Nearly all of the hotel/motels in Whitley County are located in either Corbin or Williamsburg, both of which have their own transient room taxes. The Whitley County transient room tax ordinance was created over 20 years ago to include Dupont Lodge, which is located in Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. At the time it was the only hotel/motel in the county not located inside one city or the other.

State law requires transient room tax revenue to go towards tourism-related things.