Lexington Came Together

We’re not out of the woods, but we’ve found a path.

Mayor Gorton, faced with an acute public health and economic crisis, offered a budget for 2021 that made deep cuts in affordable housing funding and zeroed out funding for social service programs.

Together with the non-profit leaders who provide the social services that our City relies upon, I called on council to restore funding to these important programs.

Today, Council voted to restore the funding of these programs.

The lessons of this are that when Council, community leaders, and State and Federal officials come together with shared values and a desire to get things done, we can do incredible things.

On a certain level, it would have been easy for Council to accept the Mayor’s budget as-is and say, “it’s a tough year and we’ll just have to take the hit.” But our neighbors insisted that to deny funding to these core programs was to hinder Lexington’s development.

I am grateful for the leadership that Mayor Gorton, Council, and all community partners and officials took to find a path forward.

The budgeting process is not finished. Council voted to restore funding, but it must approve the whole budget. Its first reading is scheduled on June 9, and the whole budget must be approved by the end of June.

On Council, I will bring the persistence and values-driven leadership to ensure that similar challenges are handled in similar ways.