Media reports about the City Council’s 13-hour marathon deliberations on the city budget were almost total nonsense.
The public was told the budget is $2 billion. It is not.
The public was told that there was a property tax cut. There was not.
Politicians are to blame for fostering these notions, but the media is culpable by not bothering to check the facts.
The budget ordinance enacted by the City Council appropriated funds totaling some $9 billion for running the city government, including the independent authorities, from Oct. 1 until Sept. 30, 2026.
The mayor’s proposed budget came with net ad valorem revenue (after distribution to the tax increment districts) of $1,191,159,774 based on 11.3169 mills (millage rate as proposed). With the millage set by the council, ad valorem revenue will be $1,177,681,641, or $13,478,133 less than the mayor wanted.
That will produce $74 million more than last year.
In other words, Mayor Donna Deegan, Democrat, wanted to increase taxes by 7.9 percent and the council knocked it down to 6.7 percent.
The tax and spend crowd called it a tax cut because it was less than Deegan wanted. That is not what most people consider a tax cut.
In fact, for the owner of a house with a taxable value of $225,000, that is a $74 tax increase.
As for the size of the budget….
Eye on Jacksonville and Deegan have made a pact.
We will continue to report the size of her budget correctly, and she will continue to mislead the public by suggesting the general fund is the total amount spent on government operations.
Fair enough.
Deegan considers the proposed city budget for the 2026 fiscal year to be $2 billion and refers to it as such. The media continues to follow her lead except for a few, such as the Daily Record, which correctly notes that $2 billion is only the general fund, a small part of the budget.
The net general government budget is $4 billion, we said in a recent article. Deegan told us that was wrong but if it is it’s her mistake because it comes from Page 12 of her budget. (It shows $5 billion but $1 billion that is double counted must be subtracted for a net figure.)
The entire budget for the city of Jacksonville, including its independent authorities, was $5.9 billion in 2021. How on Earth could it be only $2 billion five years later?
Up until recently the media reported the budget number correctly. When they decided that three-fourths of the government spending didn’t matter is not clear.
As recently as 10 years ago the city budget included the real numbers and even included school spending.
Deegan’s rationale is that the general fund is where property taxes go and people are only interested in property taxes.
But Jacksonville collects a lot of other taxes and fees.
One of the biggest is paid in JEA charges for electricity and water and sewer.
About $130 million of that pays for city operations. So, the JEA budget, which is reviewed by the mayor’s office and approved by the council doesn’t matter?
Deegan has been all about transparency and we have given her credit for that. We would just like to see a little more of it in her presentation of the budget.
