Hardin County judge presents balanced FY2025–26 budget that leans on hospital payout to cover operations

Hardin County Judge presented a proposed balanced operating budget for fiscal year 2025–26 on April 22, 2025, proposing roughly $60.78 million in total appropriations and asking the Fiscal Court to use recurring proceeds from the Hardin Memorial Hospital sale to cover part of operating needs.

The judge said the proposal tries to reconcile county growth and rising costs with limited revenue, and that the proposed operating net is balanced with roughly $23.6 million in operating revenue after offsets. He told the court the budget relies in part on the county’s annual hospital sale payout, using about $2.5 million of an approximately $2.7 million yearly payment to help balance operations.

The judge framed the choices as three main buckets for balancing: one-time pilot payments (the “Blue Oval” pilot funds), unrestricted reserves, and the recurring hospital payout. He said it makes fiscal sense to rely in part on the steady annual hospital payout rather than exhaust one-time…