Jacksonville’s nearly $1.3 billion budget is in the books

Jacksonville, FL — While holding your property tax rate flat, Jacksonville’s City Council has signed off on a nearly $1.3 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

One of the focal points of this budget initially put forward by Mayor Lenny Curry- as we've seen over the past few years- is a boost in JSO hiring. The employee cap would increase by 100, with 80 of those positions funded for some portion of this year. In a stray from prior years, there was significant questioning aimed at the additional hires, with some Council members asking if this was the best use of resources to truly cut back on crime. Others tied questions of police conduct and training in to the conversation.

Ultimately, the Finance Committee that reviewed the budget tweaked the hiring timeline, and put some of the funding in a contingency account while asking JSO to prove they could keep up the pace with onboarding- but they signed on.

JFRD also sees 42 new hires under this budget.

Another JSO-related item that had drawn substantial review was the plan to privatize health services at the Duval County Jail. JSO says that would cost about $12 million more in the upcoming budget, but it’s a worthwhile investment because it allows a contractor that specializes in this type of care to take over, and therefore assume some of the liability. The money was put aside during the review process, because the Finance Committee wanted to ensure there was competitive bidding. That money has now been formally allocated, to let the JSO team move forward with putting a contract in place.

The budget further invests tens of millions of dollars in capital projects, including basics like sidewalk construction and more high-profile projects like the Liberty Street/Coastline Drive rebuild.

It also fulfills a pledge from Curry to make improvements to Edward Waters College. Just over $8.4 million has been allocated for various projects, including the dorms and construction of a community field. There was an effort by Councilman Danny Becton to move that money instead to Public Works water and sewer line projects, but that motion failed for a lack of support to even bring the issue up for debate.

Another issue that failed to gain support- but appears to have started a conversation- was sandbags. Councilman Garrett Dennis wanted to earmark $25,000 from the Public Works budget to use specifically for sandbags in storm events. He acknowledged that he didn’t have a specific policy in mind, but wanted this to be a “mandate” to ensure something would be there. Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa says the Administration would prefer diving in to the larger issue- policy and procedure, actual needed budget, threshold for distribution, benefit or impact of sandbags, and other questions- during a pending Emergency Management briefing. Several Council members also expressed concern that this would create a $25,000 hole in the Public Works budget.

Dennis ultimately decided to withdraw the amendment, with a commitment from the Administration that there would be serious consideration to the topic. Mousa says the Emergency Management debrief of Irma will not be open to the public- and therefore not to the Council- but he would be willing to provide a debrief to the Council after it takes place.

Curry voiced his opposition less than an hour ahead of the Council meeting to one of the changes made by the Finance Committee to the budget- the Committee decided this year to no longer keep the salaries of elected officials frozen at 2010-2011 levels.

“It has come to my attention that Council has amended the budget I submitted to now include pay raises for elected officials, which I had not requested. I want to make clear that I do not support pay raises for elected officials. I have asked Council to consider an amendment to the budget tonight that ensures my salary as mayor will not be increased one cent more than it was on the day I took office.”

Councilwoman Lori Boyer offered an amendment to once again fix Curry’s salary, which was passed. Councilman Al Ferraro then put forward an amendment to again freeze the salaries of Council members and Constitutional Officers as well. Councilman Reggie Brown- among others who were in favor of the increased salaries- said the freeze had been in effect while others in the City were taking cuts, and now that others are restored, the elected officials should be as well. Ultimately, Ferraro’s amendment failed- so elected officials will see a raise, while the Mayor’s salary will remain frozen at his request.

Some of the savings realized through the budget review process by the Council were allocated toward library materials, for $850,000- although a few library supporters came out Tuesday to ask for even more funding to also restore hours. Mowing, the Downtown Economic Development Trust Fund, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, and a few community programs also got a late boost.

The budget did not raise your property tax rate, although due to the general rise in property values, your bill will likely see a tick up. That gave the City some more money to budget with, as did the recent pension reform plan that was enacted.

The vote for the budget was 17-0. Councilwoman Katrina Brown was present during much of the Council meeting, but not at the time the vote was taken. Councilman Bill Gulliford was excused from the meeting.