Special Budget Committee Meeting - June 15, 2026 - Approves Louisville Tourism, TARC, and Lodging District Budgets
Special Budget Committee Meeting - June 15, 2026
The Louisville Metro Budget Committee held a special meeting on Monday, June 15, 2026, from 3:05 PM to 4:21 PM to conduct a public hearing and vote on three fiscal year 2026-2027 budgets: the Greater Louisville Lodging Management District (GLLMD), Louisville Tourism, and the Transit Authority of River City (TARC). All three items were recommended for approval and sent to the consent calendar for the June 25 Metro Council meeting.
Consent Calendar
- O-162-26 (Louisville Tourism Budget): Approved unanimously (9-0) and sent to consent calendar. Enactment No. 101-2026.
- O-163-26 (TARC Budget): Approved 7-0 (Kramer and Reno-Weber absent, Parrish-Wright excused) and sent to consent calendar. Enactment No. 102-2026.
- R-044-26 (GLLMD Budget and Economic Improvement Plan): Approved by voice vote and sent to consent calendar. Enactment No. 041-2026.
Public Comments & Testimony
- The public hearing for the Greater Louisville Lodging Management District had no speakers.
Discussion Items
- Greater Louisville Lodging Management District (R-044-26): Eamon O'Brien, board chair of the Louisville Hotel Partnership, presented an approximately $8 million budget funded by a 1.5% assessment on hotel guests. He noted the competitive tourism landscape, citing the loss of Equip Expo to Orlando every other year. The majority ($7.1 million) goes to sales and marketing. The budget includes $400,000 for legacy groups (conventions with at least 30,000 attendees, 10+ years history, 10,000+ hotel room nights). Committee members discussed hotel occupancy (60% annual, meaning 40% empty), new hotel developments (e.g., Humana building, JW Marriott), and the potential of the city taking over management of the Kentucky International Convention Center (KICC) from the state. The committee expressed interest in exploring that option further.
- Louisville Tourism Budget (O-162-26): Cleo Battle, President/CEO, presented a $31 million general fund (mostly from transient room tax) and a debt service fund (~$20 million for KICC bonds). He highlighted record tourism years, new campaigns in Chicago and New York City, and the need for more direct flights at the airport and more hotel rooms (23,000 vs. Columbus’s 34,000). He cited the need for additional baseball diamonds and flat fields for youth sports. Committee Member Piagentini raised the possibility of city management of KICC; Battle said the topic has been discussed informally within the industry and he could provide more information if the Council pursued it.
- TARC Budget (O-163-26): Ozzy Gibson, TARC Director, presented a $110.4 million budget. He reported $27 million in savings that pushed a projected fiscal cliff from FY30 to FY31. He focused on the high cost of TARC3 paratransit service: $47 per one-way trip (customer pays $4.50), with projections of $65–$70 per trip if rebid, potentially adding $7 million annually. He noted TARC has over 8,000 registered TARC3 users (3,200 regular) and has not enforced federal three-quarter-mile eligibility rules, costing $5–$7 million. He discussed exploring microtransit or Uber partnerships. Committee members praised Gibson’s fresh approach and emphasized the need to complete the network redesign (starting August 2, 2026) before seeking additional funding.
Key Outcomes
- All three budgets passed committee and will be considered by the full Metro Council on June 25, 2026.
- Vice Chair Winkler was added as a co-sponsor to R-044-26.
- No opposition was expressed to any of the budget items.
- The committee did not take formal action on the suggestion to explore city management of KICC, but indicated openness to further discussion.
Meeting Transcript
All the details. The work that Thrive by Five is doing here at Active Imagination's Child Care Center and elsewhere is truly improving lives for kids, for families, and our entire city. It's also why I continue to support Thrive by Five through our city budget. And just recently I proposed my city budget that Metro Council is currently considering. And it has a 3.5 million dollar request for the city to continue to step up and be the lead investor in Thrive by Five Louisville. It has been truly a blessing for us to be able to provide quality child care and kindergarten readiness for children three to five. We have been in the business for 13 years. And we have noticed a difference with kids who have been in child care in a quality program from pretty much birth until now. And it makes a difference. Hi, I'm Kayla with Louisville Water, and this is Made with Pure Tap, a special segment where we're highlighting some amazing local businesses using water to make their products. Here in Louisville, we're proud of our drinking water. It's so good, we even gave it a name, Louisville Pure Tap. Pure Tap is one national awards for quality and taste. But more than just drinking water. Pure tap is an anchor for the community. Today we're here at Black Coffee. Let's head inside and see how they're using Lula Pure Tap to make their products. Hi, my name is Ryanelle Smith, and I'm the founder of Black Coffee. I started this venture as an answer to my own problem, which was there was no place west of 9th Street to get a cup of coffee, take a meeting, use the internet. We want to support other businesses and other entrepreneurs and use local products. So our beans are sourced locally, it's roasted locally. It only makes sense to use our local water, which is local Pure Tap Water. The best in the country. And water is like one of the single most important ingredients in coffee and espresso. And we would not be able to make either of those things without Louisville's Pure Tap Water. So if you want to drink like a local, come by and have a cup at Black Coffee. We're actually the oldest animal welfare agency in the state. We've greatly outgrown the building that we're in. We've been in there since the 50s. It was a converted plant nursery. And we have uh modified it. We are literally bursting at the seams, both in terms of animal capacity, staff capacity, and the services that we'd like to offer to the public. Our hope with this is to significantly expand our animal holding capacity. So that means that we're able to serve more animals in need of new homes within our community as well as across Kentucky. We're going to be able to provide better housing that reduces stress, which reduces their length of stay, reduces disease outbreak. We're going to be able to provide better accommodations for our team so that they're able to work in a more pleasant environment. We will be greatly expanding the services that we offer to the community, including increasing the number of low-cost or free spay neuter surgeries at our SNP clinic, opening a new, much broader scope public veterinary clinic, expanding our pet retention services, including our pet food bank, which has been such a huge boon to the community, and expanding our ability to respond in times of disaster. We're so proud that we're gonna have a building that reflects the caliber of the work that we do as opposed to one that fights against us every single day. Shawnee Park was built around 1900, and now the outdoor learning center will welcome the next generation of children, families, and people in the Shawnee neighborhood and across our entire city. This visionary piece is being added is just extraordinary. I can't stop grinning about this. I'm very excited and I'm delighted to see this happen. But I want to say something about the people that are behind the scene that a lot of us don't realize is working hard. It was their passion that kept me on my toes and kept me begging for this and begging for this. Come on, come on, come on. I knew it was something that was needed in our community. On guard. And I hope every single one of these young men and women that are here take this discipline. Yeah. Join Tim.
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