If you rely on the local media for information about Jacksonville, you may think that the city budget is $2 billion and that the school budget is larger.

Neither of those things are true.

When the City Council enacted the budget ordinance at its last meeting in September it made possible the collection of revenue and spending of that money for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

The budget ordinance authorized the city government, including the independent authorities, to spend $9,165,445,996.

Why does the media report $9,165,445,996 as $2 billion?

It does so because Mayor Donna Deegan, Democrat, declared the budget was $2 billion.

Deegan thinks only the general fund of the budget is of interest to taxpayers, so she calls it the budget. “Reporters” didn’t question it, they just printed it. But only, so far as we can tell, one outlet referred to it correctly as the general fund of the budget. And it didn’t print the total figure.

Typical headline: “’We did it’: City Council approves $2B budget with tax cut, healthcare initiative funding & more”

(There was no tax cut.)

Again, the local government will collect and spend $9,165,445,996 this year. (That figure does include double-counting of slightly more than $1 billion, so it is not the net figure.)

Readers and viewers may think the government schools spend more because the Duval County Public Schools report their entire budget properly. Again, the reporters report what they are told.

They rarely pay much attention to the school budget, however. We could find few stories about it, but those talked about a school budget for 2026 of $3.2 billion, which is the correct number. If they had reported only the general fund, it would be $1.6 billion.

So, politicians, make up whatever facts you like. Apparently, no one is going to check.