Local governments in Kentucky could act more quickly to deal with vacant and abandoned properties under legislation approved in a House committee Wednesday (March 12).
The measure sponsored by State Representative Joni Jenkins sets up a process for determining the fair market value of a property and establishes a tax delinquency diversion program for blighted properties.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer says his city has about six-thousand abandoned properties and they’re a problem for everybody by reducing the value of a neighborhood and potentially, points of criminal activity.
Fischer says Kentucky’s laws on vacant properties are more than thirty years old and much has changed since then. The measure known as House Bill 541 got the “thumbs up” from the Local Government Committee. It now goes to the full House.
