Once at 49.6 percent, the rate at which the city contributes to the pensions of its 2,400 police and firefighters has spiked to 81.9 percent according to a new actuarial report.  Some city officials are saying Jacksonville now faces an even more dire situation financially if the city doesn't move on pension reform soon.

"It's unsustainable, and that number is expected to continue to grow in future actuarial reports," says city councilman John Crescimbeni.

So for every $1,000 the city pays a policeman or firefighter, taxpayers are contributing $819.  The employees themselves pay only 7 percent, or $70 of every thousand dollars.  Crescimbeni says when you add in extras benefits like healthcare, insurance, benefits, uniforms, and training, just to name a few,  it costs about double what the employee's salary is to actually put that person on the street.  So for a firefighter that gets $65,000 a year, he says it costs closer to $130,000.

Crescimbeni says Mayor John Peyton talked a lot about fixing the city's pension system and now Mayor Brown has had a year to move on pension reform and has also done nothing so far, although the mayor says he wants to have framework laid out for a pension reform bill by the end of the year.

"The only thing I see happening is pages of the calendar turning and the problem continues to get worse," says Crescimbeni.  "Next year, that $150 million could go to $180 million, maybe $200 million.  I mean, the forecast for the future is very, very bleak."

Police and Fire Pension Board administrator John Keane says they have supported pension reform for a long time, but unfortunately, not much has been done to move on it.

"The pension benefits earned by police officers and firefighters are part of their salary for a career of serving the citizens," says Keane.

Keane says if pension reform is going to happen, it needs to stay fair and continue to provide competitive benefits so that JSO and JFRD can continue to attract top talent to come work as police officers and firefighters in Jacksonville.  He mentioned that police and firefighters don't have social security since the city voted to take them out of it more than 50 years ago and they don't get healthcare benefits after they retire, so they foot that entire bill.

"Since 2008, the police and fire pension board has sent over 100 recommendations of things to do to improve the funding ratio of the police and fire pension fund and not many have been adopted."

He says Mayor Peyton unsuccessfully tried to pass pension reform during his administration.  Keane laughed when asked whether the city would go into bankruptcy due to ballooning pension costs.  He says Jacksonville has millions of dollars in tax levying power and would likely raise taxes if need be because there is still plenty of room to do so since he says the city imposes less than half the taxes it's allowed.

Mayor Brown has vowed that Jacksonville will not end up like Stockton or San Bernardino in California, which recently had to declare bankruptcy due to pension plans that got out of control.

"We are just wasting time and we're going to get to a point where this thing could be traveling downhill at such a speed that we may not be able to recover from it," says Crescimbeni.

He says he hopes this report will light a fire under the mayor and the rest of city council to move forward on pension reform.