Facing budget uncertainties for the current fiscal year and an unexpected shortfall for the past fiscal year due to state funding cuts, the Barren River Area Development District has joined six other development districts in a lawsuit against the Kentucky Department for Local Government.

The lawsuit, filed June 28 in Franklin Circuit Court, seeks recovery of the $867,900 the Department for Local Government cut in May from the budgets of the state’s 15 ADDs. The BRADD, which had $57,496.13 cut from its state funding, is joined in the lawsuit by the Lincoln Trail, Bluegrass, Kentuckiana, Northern Kentucky, Pennyrile and Purchase ADDs. The state’s eight other ADDs haven’t joined the lawsuit.

The cuts amount to roughly 40 percent of the Department for Local Government’s joint funding agreement with the ADDs, which totaled $2,116,300 for the 2017-18 fiscal year and was to be used for such projects as public safety, infrastructure planning and care for the elderly that are administered by the ADDs.

Because the money had been spent on programming before the announcement of the cuts, BRADD Executive Director Eric Sexton said trying to restore the cuts is important.

“We just want to be paid for the work we’ve already done under our contract,” said Sexton, who was hired as executive director last year.

“They sent notification (of the cuts) in the 11th month of the fiscal year, after services had already been provided.”

In the lawsuit, the ADDs claim the budget cuts “constitute an unlawful and unconstitutional taking of funds which were designated by the General Assembly to be used for the citizens of Kentucky.” The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief to require the Department for Local Government to restore all the funds appropriated by the legislature to the ADDs.

City of Glasgow Mayor Dick Doty, chairman of the BRADD board of directors, said the board joined the lawsuit reluctantly but, he believes, necessarily.

“It (the lawsuit) is an extreme measure,” Doty said. “I have mixed feelings about it. You hate to poke ’em in the eye with a lawsuit, but that $58,000 cut has certainly had an impact. We were counting on those funds, so it makes it hard to operate.”

Sexton said the ADDs were willing to accept a small cut as part of the budget streamlining announced by Gov. Matt Bevin in December and January. But, he claims, cuts in the Department for Local Government budget were handled in such a way that local programming absorbed all the impact.

According to the lawsuit, the Department for Local Government’s portion of Bevin’s budget reduction order was $804,500. Rather than spread that cut between administrative expenses in the Frankfort office and funding for the ADDs, DLG Commissioner Sandy Dunahoo opted to take all the required cut plus an extra $63,400 from the money earmarked for the 15 ADDs.

Sexton said the ADDs resorted to a lawsuit only after failing to make any progress toward restoring funds in talks with Department for Local Government staff members.

“There is a chance that if we’re not a party to this (lawsuit), then we would not be able to recoup the money,” he said.

Already buffeted by the loss in 2016 of federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funding and other cuts, BRADD has reduced staffing and left the associate director position vacant for months after Gene Becker’s retirement last year.

As a result, Sexton says it’s urgent that the funding be restored.

“We performed the work outlined in our contract,” he explained. “This is money that I can’t ask our employees to give back. If this is not resolved, we’ll have to figure out how we’re going to proceed.”

Many of the state’s ADDs have been reluctant to join the lawsuit, but Sexton said the eight that aren’t yet parties to the legal action could still join.

“I do know that parties to lawsuits can be amended,” he said. “I suspect you’ll see more become parties to this lawsuit.”

According to the lawsuit, the Department for Local Government has 20 days from the filing of the complaint to make a response. Elizabeth Bagby, director of business development for the Lexington law firm McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland that is representing the ADDs, said Wednesday that no response had been received.