Schools, greenways headline $18.3B buildings budget

The Metro Council officially approved Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s 2025 Capital Improvements Budget Tuesday night without fanfare at a special-called meeting. The budget, which includes $18.3 billion in total requests, functions as a planning tool for facility and equipment upgrades eyed by the city over the next six years. School expansions and renovations, new and improved libraries and park land acquisition make up the bulk of the budget.

City officials describe the annual CIB as Metro’s running “menu” of upgrades. A line item can sit here for years or receive direct funding via intermittent Capital Spending Plans, which green-light priority projects roughly every year. O’Connell’s most recent CSP came in January.