The Paducah Board of Commissioners held a regular meeting on September 8, 2026, with Mayor Bray and all commissioners present. The meeting included public comments, consent agenda approvals, discussion of several municipal orders, and introduction of three ordinances. Key topics included the fire department training facility water main project, the community scholarship program, a lease for Siemens Church Institute, a new solid waste contract, and a development agreement for single-family homes. The meeting concluded with a motion to enter closed session.
Everyone, I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on September eighth, twenty twenty-six, and ask our city clerk to please call role. Commissioner Henderson. Present. Commissioner Smith? Here. Commissioner Thomas. Present. Commissioner Wilson. Present. Mayor Bray. Here. I would ask uh Commissioner Henderson to do the invocation, and then we'll remain standing for the national anthem. Father and our God, again, we're grateful for the data that you've given us and for the blessings that we right now enjoy. We thank you so much, Father, for the privilege that you've given us to serve this community. Uh, we pray now, God, that as we uh talk and discuss and share, that you'll be in the midst of our uh discussion, uh guiding our ideas, guiding our understanding. Father, we thank you again for this privilege in Jesus' name. We pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And whereas City Government Month calls on city officials to get involved in their local schools in an educating and engaging elementary school students in city government. Now therefore, I George P. Bray, Mayor of the City Paducah, hereby proclaim September 2026, City Government Month. Okay, with that, uh, we have one person that wants to do public comments, Marshall Davis. Come on up. Hopefully, this won't be like a broken record. Maybe I'll have it a little different soon every time, but maybe we maybe together when we get this done. Uh hopefully, I don't I guess we'll see eventually. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Marshall Davis. Uh, live at 7 Westvale, Paducah, Kentucky. I appreciate the opportunity to be here, Mayor, Commissioners, Manager, and Clerk. Paducah's current business license taxes the top line of a business, not the bottom line, but also adds a tax break to the largest entities in Paducah. Every dollar that flows through a Paducah business, whether it ultimately ends in a profit or loss, is subject to the levy. The phase threshold increase is a welcome administrative improvement, but it does nothing to address the fundamental flaw structure. A business that loses money still owes city tax, and small businesses continue to pay a dramatically higher effective rate than those large ones throughout the entire phase in period. Every business with gross receipts at or below the threshold, the vast majority of Paducah small businesses pay the full scheduled E rate of 0.3% in every year of the phase in. The threshold increase delivers zero benefit to them, while the relief flows entirely to businesses large enough to have receipts above the threshold and grows more generous the larger the business. By 2030, a business with 20 million in gross receipts pays an effective rate of 0.7.178% less than 60% of what the small business next door pays on its 500,000 in receipts. The same schedule repeats across every schedule or the same pattern. Under Schedule C, a small restaurant, the neighborhood diner at 400,000 in receipts never benefits from the rising threshold, while the regional chain at 10 million sees meaningful rate relief each year. Kentucky law authorizes cities to impose occupational license taxes on either net profit or gross receipts. But the overwhelming consensus among Kentucky major cities is to tax on net profits, the amount actually earned after legitimate business expenses are deducted. Consider these municipal taxes. Lexington Fayette County net profit, Louisville Metro net profit, Bowling Green Net Profit, Ashland, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Covington, Owensboro, all net profit tax. Paducah's gross receipts from.045% to a half percent. Every major Kentucky City business, every Kentucky City taxes businesses on what they actually earn except Paducah. Paducah stands alone in taxing what merely passes through the business's hands, regardless of whether that business ends the year in profit or loss. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here.