FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Senate committee unanimously signed off on a bill Wednesday to give the state more power to dissolve cities.
What You Need To Know
- The Senate State and Local Government committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 106 on Wednesday
- The bill would allow the state to dissolve certain cities that have no government and no elected leaders
- The Kentucky League of Cities says 12 cities fit such a description, and it caused problems when federal relief money started going out to local municipalities
The bill, Senate Bill 106, only applies to about 12 municipalities where there is no functional city government and no elected leaders, according to Bryanna Carroll with the Kentucky League of Cities.
“The Kentucky League of Cities identified this as a priority; our board voted to approve this because it’s good government,” she said.
Carroll said KLC actually discovered the ghost cities during the pandemic when some of these towns were going to get federal relief money, but no one was there to do anything with it.
“So we want to make sure that if there is a city, and there are federal funds, that the residents can receive the funds,” she said. “If there are taxes being paid, we want to make sure that gets to the residents. And so this is just an administrative effort to dissolve those cities if there’s no elected officials or if there’s not a functioning government.”
Senate Bill 106 allows the Department for Local Government to begin dissolving a city if no one files documentation for that city this year. Currently, only a citizen can set that process in motion.
“And that individual or those residents who file the court action have to shoulder the cost, so this removes that burden,” Carroll said.
And at least one town still collects taxes, which would go away if the city were dissolved.
Senate Bill 106 now heads to the Senate floor.