Mayor Tom Watson on Tuesday asked that the finance department find a way to take the occupational license fee and insurance back to where it was when he was first in office. In July 2017, the Owensboro City Commission voted to increase the occupational license fee rate from 1.39% to 1.78%.
During Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, Watson said that now is a good time for the request, as the occupational license fee has done well over time.
“I think it’d be a nice time, with the $4 gasoline and other things going on, that if you could come to a proposal for us,” Watson said to the finance department.
Watson said he also thinks it would be beneficial because he “anticipates the economy getting worse.”
City Manager Nate Pagan said he can get the team to do some research and provide information at the next regular meeting as to how it will affect the City’s bottom line.
In other business, commissioners passed an ordinance to close an alley between 408 Frederica Street and 322 West 4th Street. The closure came at the request of the Rivercity Trio I LLC, which is building a new apartment building on the former Jerry Ray Davis Lot.
Commissioners also voted in favor of annexing to the city roughly 53 acres just off Goetz Drive and Coventry Lane, which will house a 177-lot neighborhood in the near future. Commissioners granted the typical annexation incentives that come with the development.
