Can we stop the nonsense?
Members of the City Council’s Finance Committee decided in budget deliberations to reduce the amount of money Mayor Donna Deegan, Democrat, wanted to take from property owners.
That simple proposal set off if not a firestorm at least a minor conflagration.
Deegan was aghast and her staunchest defender, “Republican” Matt Carlucci has gone wild on Facebook and in public speeches. It almost sounds from his description as if Jacksonville will become Calcutta, with beggars in the streets, if Deegan’s profligate wishes are not granted.
Can we look at a few numbers?
In 2024 the city government took $1,040,676,809 in taxes from property owners.
In 2025 the city budgeted $1,103,688,826 in property tax revenue.
Deegan’s proposed 2026 fiscal year budget called for $1,191,159,774 in property taxes.
That would have been an increase of 7.5 percent. Not exactly chicken feed.
The Finance Committee did its due diligence and proposed collecting $1,177,681,641 in property taxes, creating the furor.
That would be $13.5 million less than Deegan wanted — but $74 million more than the previous year.
It is not a “tax cut.”
It is a 6.7 percent increase.
The amount also is minuscule in a budget of $4 billion.
Millionaires Deegan and Carlucci mock the amount that the average homeowner would save by the change, but it is the direction, not the amount, that matters.
At the national and state level, responsible politicians are arresting the alarming growth of government and a little restraint at the local level is in order as well.
Carlucci actually said in a Facebook post that partisanship has no place in local government.”
Say what? Principles have no meaning? There’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans just because they live in the same city?
Look at the numbers and see if you think the council would wreck the city via the modest proposal to increase property tax revenue by only 6.7 percent.
The budget in question can be found here. Might make for a good read this Labor Day weekend.
