OWENSBORO, KY (11-18-11) - Owensboro is seeing huge improvements made to downtown, and it is getting attention as far away as New York City. In yesterday’s edition of the New York Times, a special article appeared featuring the city of Owensboro, its downtown renovations, and spotlighting the man spearheading the campaign, Mayor Ron Payne. Crediting Payne’s energetic personality and cavalier mayoral style as the catalyst for getting the ball rolling on the downtown renovation, the Times showed just what Owensboro is doing right, in an otherwise slow economy.
According to Keith Schneider, the author, under Payne’s leadership, the city of Owensboro and Daviess County has seen a time of prosperity, the like of which one may not see elsewhere. The 2010-11 fiscal year ended with a $ 1.1 million surplus in the city government’s accounts, while the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent. The national average is 9 percent. Much of Owensboro’s current downtown rejuvenation is financed in part by a 2009 insurance premium tax increase which raised insurance taxes to 8 percent to 4 percent.
City officials are happy about the article in the Times. One city official, who wished to remain anonymous, had this to say. “From our stand point, it doesn’t matter whether you are for or against the downtown project. The fact is, any publicity is good publicity.”
Alex Reid
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