Kentucky Republican lawmakers vow to fight future JCPS tax hike due to financial crisis

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A $188 million hole has Jefferson County Public Schools in a financial crisis, with a Republican state lawmaker calling the district’s top decision-makers incompetent.

Representative Jason Nemes said state Republicans will do everything in their power to stop JCPS from raising taxes.

“If they try to do that there will be an absolute war against them,” Nemes said.

House Majority Whip Nemes said the district’s near $200 million shortfall highlights ongoing mismanagement.

“This is a problem that has not a thing to do with money... it has to do with their incompetence,” he said.

JCPS’s $2.3 billion budget is nearly double Louisville Metro’s.

“About five years ago, they raised our taxes 9 percent. That’s a massive tax increase. They got a big tranche of money from COVID, yet they still can’t manage their dollars,” Nemes said.

In 2019, the district’s budget was $1.7 billion. JCPS now spends about $600 million more.

Board members said they weren’t aware the district’s spending was so bad and would have to consider selling off assets to make payroll next year until it was time to vote on this years budget.

“We are not going to be spending the same amount of money in the next budget year. We cannot, but we also have to explore our revenues,” James Craig said at a JCPS revenue meeting.

“The board is the one who hires, the board is the one who fires, the board is the one who approves budgets. We elect the board; we don’t elect employees,” Nemes said.

The crisis has revived long-standing Republican calls to split the district. Nemes said it’s not on the table this year but remains a priority.

“It’s very, very big. I’m not sure they can get the job done; they’ve not proven that they can,” he said.

A major tax hike may now be off the table.

“We will change the law to disallow them to be able to substantially raise the taxes again,” Nemes said.

WDRB reached out to House Democrats for comment but hasn't heard back as of this writing.

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