As it stands, Jacksonville residents soon will get chances to vote both for higher taxes and lower taxes, on the same ballot.
In November, they will decide upon whether to quintuple the homestead exemption for property taxes, which would mean a substantial savings for many homeowners.
They also will decide whether to increase property taxes for schools. Using slick semantics, proponents are saying it is not a tax increase because it extends a tax that is expiring … but it is.
Much has been said about the tax relief via the homestead exemption – which, incidentally, would not affect the schools – but the school tax needs a thorough vetting as well.
First, it is sizeable. It would be $300 on a home with a taxable value of $300,000.
Secondly, it is using non-recurring funds to pay for a recurring expense. That’s bad bookkeeping in anybody’s book.
Much will be said from the left about the need to pay teachers higher salaries. (Even though what someone earns is no one else’s business.)
Most of the chatter from the left can be discounted. It is standard Democrat fare. It is based, although they won’t admit it, on the fact that teacher unions are a financial arm of the Democrat Party. Money spent on teacher salaries means more cash to finance Democrat politicians.
For Democrats, it’s all about the bucks.
Teachers in Duval County aren’t starving. The median salary is $53,500. That means half the teachers earn more than that amount.
In addition, they have a 196-day contract and generous benefits such as vacation, retirement and health care as part of their compensation.
The median salary puts Duval firmly in the top third among Florida school districts. Only 20 counties had a higher median salary in 2024-25, according to the state Dept. of Education.
Also, the salary is within a few dollars of the average for teachers nationwide, according to salary.com.
An expense that you have every year should be paid with revenue you have every year, not one the voters have to keep giving you as a bonus, over and above what they already owe.
Eye on Jacksonville suspects that more people would be willing to boost teacher salaries if teachers were paid like most other workers – based on performance. But that’s another issue altogether that we will explore later.
