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Oldham County Health Department outlines tax district revenue, priorities and accreditation bid
Summary
Health Department Director Matt Rhodes presented the Board of Health taxing‑district budget and said the department will submit accreditation documentation next year; he also highlighted mental‑health work funded partly by opioid settlement dollars.
Matt Rhodes, director of the Oldham County Health Department, told the Oldham County Fiscal Court on Sept. 2 that the health department’s public‑health taxing district continues at 2.5¢ per $100 of assessed valuation and provides the majority of the agency’s operating revenue.
Rhodes said the 2.5¢ rate — unchanged since February 2016 — generated $2,397,101 in revenue in 2025 and that the taxing district accounts for roughly 63% of the department’s operational budget. He told the court the department maintains investments to help meet a $7.9 million pension liability and reported $150,000 in interest income in the most recent accounting period. “This rate is the same rate that the board has maintained since 02/2016,” Rhodes said.
The presentation tied the taxing‑district figures to legal requirements for county health boards. Rhodes cited Kentucky Revised Statutes KRS 212.720 and KRS 212.725, saying the statutes create public health taxing districts and set the Board of Health resolution requirement; he also said the state sets a minimum rate of 1.8¢ and a maximum of 10¢ per $100 of assessed valuation.
Rhodes gave a breakdown of the department’s revenue mix: about 63% from the local taxing district, roughly 12% from service fees (clinical and environmental services), about 14% from state sources and about 11% from federal sources. He said interest income rounds to less than 1% of total revenue in the presented materials.
He described the department’s organizational structure — clinical services, community wellness, environmental health, maternal and child health, plus performance management and communications — and reviewed programs that emphasize prevention, maternal‑child services and environmental inspections of food service, lodging and mobile home parks.
Rhodes highlighted two recent and ongoing priorities: use of opioid settlement funds to secure the Credible Mind digital platform for mental‑health and substance‑use resources, and formation of a mental‑health task force convened in August 2023. He also said the department has applied to the Public Health Accreditation Board and expects to submit required documentation at the start of next year; a roughly one‑year review and a site visit would follow if the application proceeds.
Magistrate Michael Woosley asked what drives Oldham County’s strong ranking in county health rankings; Rhodes pointed to life expectancy, education and income indicators and named local high‑school performance as one element: “We have a great education system,” he said, noting that education and community factors contribute together to population health.
Rhodes closed by inviting questions and offering to provide FY26 budget documents where earlier materials on the meeting iPads showed FY21 figures in error.
The court did not take any formal vote on the presentation itself; Rhodes’s materials will be part of the Board of Health’s official taxing‑district resolution filings to the state.
