Independence to enter into local program to help residents become homeowners

Independence City Council members unanimously voted at a meeting on June 5 to allow the mayor to begin the process of entering the city into the Northern Kentucky HOME Consortium, a local program that uses federal grant money to aid Northern Kentucky residents with purchasing a home.

Independence will be the newest addition to the consortium, joining Bellevue, Cov-

BY NATHAN GRANGER | LINK nky REPORTER

ington, Dayton, Erlanger, Florence, Ludlow and Newport.

The decision came following a presentation from Covington Mayor Joe Meyer, who laid out the basics of the program and fielded questions from the council members.

“Erlanger has joined this year. Florence has joined this year,” Meyer said. “It’s a great program. This gives you the chance to help your people be homeowners in Independence.”

The HOME Consortium offers forgivable loans of up to $10,000 to help qualifying candidates cover down payments and other closing costs associated with purchasing a house or similar property – costs that are often difficult to save for.

It also injects money into organizations to help them invest in community improvement and affordable housing.

Specifically, Meyer identified three in the region: Entryway Inc., The Center for Great Neighborhoods and Housing Opportunities of Northern Kentucky.

To be eligible for a HOME loan, buyers must meet the following criteria, in addition to being a resident of one of the consortium cities:

• Their gross annual household income must be at or below 80% of the area’s median income as set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is $53,000 for a single person or $76,400 for a four-person household.

• They must attend a homebuyer education course taught by a HUD-certified instructor.

• The properties they wish to purchase must have one or two units, either owner-occupied or vacant.

• The properties’ sale prices cannot exceed $195,000.

• The properties must meet minimum local housing standards.

Once accepted, homebuyers’ interest rates on the down payment loan are 0%, and they have no monthly required repayments. For every year the owners stay in the property, $1,000 of the loan is forgiven, with full forgiveness occurring after 10 years.

Buyers are still on the hook for financing the remainder of the home purchase through a conventional lender.

The median house price in Independence is $212,479, according to the Environmental Systems Research Institute, a geographical information software platform used by Realtors.

After Meyer gave an overview of the program, several council members asked questions.

“What is the benefit of Independence coming on board with this?” asked Chris Vogelpohl.

“It helps your community,” Meyer replied. Covington is responsible for managing the program for all of the cities in the agreement, so Independence would not need to dedicate staff time or money to the program.

Covington selling Pride T-shirts to help fund trades scholarships

and even more excited that the proceeds will be used to fund scholarships for Covington residents to attend the Enzweiler Trades School in Latonia,” said Covington Economic Development Director Tom West in a recent press release from the city.

Go to covingtonky.gov to purchase a shirt.

Did working from home contribute to Covington’s general fund shortfall?

The city of Covington has attributed its recent budget shortfall to rising work-fromhome policies.

nearly 5,500 people at its office in Covington.

“We fall off the pace due to the implications of (the) remote work situation with our largest employers,” Webb said. “As remote work has become normalized, these employers are now withholding and remitting portions of the occupational license tax to the jurisdictions where their employees are physically working.”

This is not the first time the general fund has experienced a deficit. Expenditures have exceeded revenues for the two preceding quarters of the fiscal year.

The fund was also in deficit at the end of the last fiscal year and the end of the 2017 fiscal year, according to annual comprehensive financial reports from the city.

The City of Covington is now selling T-shirts celebrating Pride Month to help fund scholarships to the Enzweiler Building Institute, a secondary construction trades school that recently opened a branch in Latonia.

“We had no idea the city’s shirts for Pride would be such a fashion statement, but we are so pleased that folks want their own

Covington Finance Director Steve Webb disclosed during a presentation at a city commission meeting on May 23 that the general fund’s expenditures had exceeded its revenue for the third quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, which ends on June 30.

The city’s finance department attributed the budget shortfall to declining payroll tax revenues following the rise of work-fromhome policies at the city’s large employers. Specifically, it cited Fidelity, which employs

This shortfall did not occur in other sections of the city’s budget, most of which were funds used for special projects and programs. Much of the money for those other funds comes from grants and other monetary sources unrelated to local tax collection.

Payroll tax has historically made up a large chunk of Covington’s revenue and has accounted for 45% of the general fund’s revenue for the 2023 fiscal year thus far.

For the 2022 fiscal year ending on June 30, 2022, payroll taxes and similar licensing fees accounted for about two-thirds of the fund’s revenue.

The largest expense for the general fund since 2017 has been public safety costs, including salaries and benefits for firefighters and police, which have consistently taken up about 60% of the general fund’s expenditures.

Webb did not mention work-from-home policies in his presentation to the board in February.

The comprehensive report for the 2022 fiscal year suggested that payroll tax collections were up.

“Revenue from the payroll tax was far ahead of schedule as of October,” said the finance department in an email. “In fact, it was running on a pace to finish the fiscal year some $2.5 million ahead of projections.”

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By the end of the calendar year, the email went on to say, growth had tapered off. By January, city officials noticed that payroll tax receipts had “dropped below the budgeted pace.”

Like many businesses, Fidelity changed its labor policies at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow employees to work from home.

In spring 2020, management sent all but essential workers home to abide by shelter-in-place orders. Sources from within Fidelity indicate that the company had about 3,000 Covington employees at that time.

Workers were allowed to return to the office voluntarily in 2022. Today, employees operate on a hybrid work arrangement, with five required in-office days per month. Otherwise, employees are free to work from home, an arrangement many still take advantage of, several employees said.

A spokesperson from Fidelity confirmed that the company changed its tax withholding policy late last year to collect taxes from the locality where employees are scheduled to work.

Girl Scouts of Kentucky’s Wilderness Road to host inaugural Girl Scout 500

Girl Scouts of Kentucky’s Wilderness Road is bringing girls together from Eastern, Northern, and Southeast Kentucky for The Girl Scout 500, the first valve car race, and STEM Fest.

The event will be held on Saturday, June 17, at the future site of Girl Scouts of Kentucky’s Wilderness Road Leadership Campus in Erlanger.

Valve car kits have been distributed to teams of middle school and high school girls, who have been working since January to modify their own to create the fastest car. A valve car is a hollow vehicle housing with a valve cover from a car engine powered by gravity.

This girl-led program, with limited adult guidance, allows each girl the opportunity for creative thinking and experimenting with engineering principles.

The bracket-style tournament will include multiple track races in 15-minute increments. Following the race, participants will be given supplies to decorate the track and commemorate the first Girl Scout 500.

Throughout the day, participants can engage in STEM-focused activities, such as building binary bracelets, LEGO robotics, snap circuits and robotic boats.

For more information or to register, visit mygs.girlscouts.org.

Library on wheels coming to Latonia Terrace

The Kenton County Public Library and the Housing Authority of Covington will host the library on wheels at the Latonia Terrace community room.

Check out the library on wheels from 3-4 p.m. on June 26, July 10, July 24 and Aug. 7.

The events are free and open to the public.

U.S. inspector general releases report on grant funding for Ion Center for Violence Prevention

U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz recently released a report on grant funding to Kentucky-based nonprofit the Ion Center for Violence Prevention in Covington, which provides services related to domestic violence.

“The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the Ion Center used Victims of Crime Act funds appropriately to provide services to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. However, we also found that … (The Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet) approved the Ion Center to use some of the funds for prevention education services, which was unallowable under guidance available at the time of the grant. Accordingly, the OIG identified $263,250 in questioned costs related to prevention education services. We also found that the Ion Center lacked formal guidance to help meet reporting requirements,” according to the Office of the Inspector General.

The report indicates that the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet had reimbursed the Ion Center nearly $1.2 million as of Oct. 31.

The inspector general made four recommendations to improve the center’s use of grant funding. The Ion Center and the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet agreed with two of the recommendations, disagreed with one and did not respond to the other.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Kentucky officials say they won’t start paying out $21 million in economic incentives for a proposed electric vehicle battery facility until the company further explains why the Department of Energy abruptly rejected a $200 million loan for the project after some congressional Republicans argued the firm has improper ties to China.

Texas-based Microvast was one of 20 companies to win preliminary grants totaling $2.8 billion to boost the domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles. The company is building battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee and was in talks with the Energy Department for a $200 million grant funded through the 2021 infrastructure law.

Yang Wu, Microvast’s founder and CEO, said the company was surprised by the Energy Department’s decision against awarding the loan, which would fuel plans for a Kentucky facility focused on a new technology for batteries called polyaramid separator. The department did not offer a reason for cutting off talks.

It’s unclear if the company will still try to build the project in Kentucky. A company spokesperson did not respond to emails asking if plans for a facility in the state were moving forward. A slideshow for an investors presentation days after news of the federal denial broke late last month did not mention Kentucky or the loan. The com- pany has also sought to fight back against claims of inappropriate Chinese influence.

In March, Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration announced the project, which was expected to include a $504 million investment from the company and create 562 full-time jobs at a new Hopkinsville facility, which was expected to be finished by March 2025.

Now, Kentucky officials say they need more information from the company about the federal decision before they would move forward with the incentives deal they preliminarily approved. When initially considering the company’s plans for Hopkinsville, officials weighed “the presence of Microvast’s current operations in the U.S., the presence of U.S.-based leadership and the presence of federal funding” and other factors, said Brandon Mattingly, spokesperson for the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

Officials are continuing an “open communication” with Microvast, Mattingly added.

After the decision, Microvast released a rebuttal about the claims of ties to China, including a note that Wu “is an American citizen.”

“Microvast is based in Texas, its shares are traded on Nasdaq, and the operations for our global business are centralized in the U.S.,” Wu said in a written statement after the loan decision. “Neither the Chinese government nor the Chinese Communist Party has any ownership in the Company, nor do they control or influence Company operations in any way.”

Mother of Breonna Taylor joins effort to defeat Cameron’s gubernatorial hopes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Breonna Taylor’s mother endorsed a grassroots campaign on June 5 aimed at defeating Republican Daniel Cameron’s bid for Kentucky governor, reviving anger over a criminal investigation he led that yielded no charges against any officers for the fatal shooting of the Black woman during a police raid.

Tamika Palmer plunged into the political fray on what would have been her daughter’s 30th birthday. Breonna Taylor’s death in 2020 spurred nationwide racial justice protests alongside the outrage over the killing of George Floyd.

Palmer and other activists announced a campaign to bolster voter registration and turnout against Cameron’s bid to unseat Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in November.

Taylor’s family and scores of protesters have long blamed Cameron for a lack of criminal charges against the officers for Taylor’s death on March 13, 2020. Police opened fire into Taylor’s Louisville apartment after her boyfriend fired a shot at them from a hallway, wounding one of the officers. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, has said he thought he was firing at an intruder.

Kentucky’s first Black attorney general, Cameron was thrust into the national spotlight when his office investigated the shooting and actions of officers that day.

Cameron has defended the investigation, saying he “followed the law without fear or favor.” Palmer and other activists said Monday that Cameron’s handling of the case shows he’s unqualified to be governor.

“He decided that we didn’t matter,” Palmer told reporters in a downtown Louisville park that was the epicenter of 2020 protests in Louisville. “He decided that Breonna didn’t deserve justice.”

Activists said they plan to open offices in Louisville and another in Lexington –Kentucky’s two largest cities – to canvass neighborhoods and operate phone banks in a mobilization against Cameron.

In 2020, three jurors on the 12-member grand jury came forward to say Cameron’s team limited their scope and misled them about what charges they could consider against the officers.

Covington Rotary launches Bottle Caps to Benches project

The Covington Rotary Club is partnering with Cub Scout Pack 367 to collect bottle caps and other small plastics to be recycled into benches and made available to the community. The goal of the Bottle Caps to Benches project is to collect 250 pounds of plastic to be turned into benches by Indiana-based recycler/manufacturer Green Tree Plastics.

Common caps include water and soda bottle caps, milk carton lids, medicine bottle caps, peanut butter lids and laundry detergent tops. Other plastic items accepted include lids for ice cream and butter containers, deodorant caps, milk jug caps, lids from condiments, ointment tube caps and more.

Caps can be dropped off at a Covington Rotary meeting. For large donations, contact Shane Noem at shanenoem@gmail.com to coordinate a drop-off. The Northern Kentucky Sierra Club chapter also will accept donations at its monthly meetings and deliver theme to Covington Rotary. For meeting info, visit covingtonkyrotary. com.

Free admission at Behringer-Crawford for military families

For more information on the museum, visit bcmuseum.org. For more information on Blue Star Museums, visit arts.gov/initiatives/blue-star-museums.

Florence, Heritage Bank announce summer concert series

The city of Florence and Heritage Bank are presenting a summer concert series. First in the series is music by brother-sister duo TYPO and country cover band East of Austin from 6-10 p.m. Friday, June 16. Other concerts follow, including one by London Street on Friday, Aug. 11, and a Labor Day car show and concert featuring the Florence Community Band and The Grateful Dads on Saturday, Sept. 2. Bands perform in the lower-level lot at Florence Mall, 2028 Mall Road.

Newport Central Catholic celebrates honor roll students

Newport Central Catholic is celebrating its second-semester academic honor roll students. First-honors students attained a 3.84 weighted grade point average with no grade below 90%. They are (drum roll, please):

Freshmen: Alex Alarcon, Ben Colwell, McKenna Desmond, Jack Gearding, Greta Hansbauer, Preston Koeninger, Alannah Kues, John Luhn, Isabella Middendorf, Paytin Reckers, Ben Sperbeck

Sophomores: Kaleb Cole, Louie Collopy, Addison Dufeck, Caroline Eaglin, Vivian Fassler, Chase Fields, Charlie Ford, Joseph Gilbert, Jonathan Green, Eva Greene, Sam Greene, Mary Kennedy, Christopher Meyer, Katie Meyer, Avery Moeves, JT Mumper, Elena Potts, Kate Schirmer, Sophie Schoulties, Madison Wolf

Public Notices

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#8, amending Section 38.08(C)(1) of the Dayton Code of Ordinances related to appeals of Code Enforcement citations. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www.daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#3, an ordinance amending chapter 110 of the City of Dayton, Kentucky, Code of Ordinances, including the schedule occupational license fees businesses owe to the City on total gross receipts. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www.daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#5, prohibiting the operation of recycling operations and storage of recycling materials in residentially and commercially zoned areas of the City of Dayton. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www.daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#7, adopting the City of Dayton, Kentucky’s annual budget for the fiscal year running from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, and estimating revenues and resources and appropriat ing funds for the City to the full extent authorized by KRS 82.082 and interpre- tative case law. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www.daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#4, adding a new section 37.02 and amending section 37.04 of the Dayton Code of Ordinances related to the payment, collection, and enforcement of the City’s ad valorem property taxes. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www. daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#6, adding a new section 72.15, titled “Vehicles Carrying Recycling Materials,” to the Dayton Code of Ordinances. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www.daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

The City of Dayton, Kentucky, has adopted Ordinance 2023#9, amending the City of Dayton, Kentucky’s annual budget for the fiscal year running from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, and estimating revenues and resources and appropriat ing funds for the City of the full extent authorized by KRS 82.082 and interpretative case law. The ordinance may be viewed in full at www.daytonky.com and at the Dayton City Building, 514 Sixth Avenue, Dayton, KY, or by calling 859-491-1600.

Behringer-Crawford Museum in Devou Park, at 1600 Montague Road in Covington, is now a Blue Star Museum, meaning it participates in a program by the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families. Under the Blue Star Museums initiative, U.S. military personnel and their families receive free admission to Behringer-Crawford this summer through Labor Day.

Juniors: Emma Beck, Kara Bleser, Brady Diedenhofer, Rachel Glaser, Griffin Hatfield, Tyler Kevill, Gweneth Kramer, Sam Krebs, Katlyn Schmitt, Morgan Wagner, Christian Woods

Seniors: Kayla Ahlbrand, Amelia Brun, Mia Buemi, James Doepker, Karly Enginger, Kailey Gearding, Camryn Kohrs, Emma Krebs, Leah Meyer, Allison Meyers, Kiley Murphy, Garrett Schoulties, Alyssa Smith