City Council is teed up to vote on the city’s budget in a couple of weeks and one member is warning that higher taxes are in the city’s future.
The budgeted amount for general government in the current year was just shy of $4 billion. Barring last minute changes it will be $4.44 billion next year. Neither figure includes the city’s independent authorities. When they are added, the total city budget for next year is $8.6 billion.
Council Member Rory Diamond posted this on Factbook:
“Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan getting ready to raise your taxes.
Members of City Council ALREADY arguing to raise your property taxes
“We might have to…”
No. No. No.”
Diamond told Eye on Jacksonville that despite cutting $37 million from operating reserve funds proposed by the mayor, the council’s Finance Committee approved the remainder. And even though it calls for spending more than $1 billion in property taxes the rising spending levels foreshadow higher taxes in the future.
Technically, the budget for next year does raise taxes. It does not call for a lower tax rate that would produce the same amount of money from increased property values. The council is choosing a slightly higher tax rate that will generate a net $73 million more property tax revenue than the current year.
Diamond’s point is that even with growth in the tax roll the rising spending will force tax rates higher in future years unless spending is restrained.
But the Deegan administration is not restraining. It is finding new ways almost every day to spend Other People’s Money.
In addition to building a new stadium, with a contribution from the city’s NFL team, local government is building a $434 million sidewalk called the Emerald Trail, increasing mass transit costs, replacing thousands of septic tanks and spending $350 million on various projects included in the stadium lease deal but unrelated to the stadium. It also is contemplating a new jail, and the mayor wants to help people buy houses.
