With less than a week to go until Jacksonville’s Mayor presents his budget proposal to the City Council, one of your reps has a few key priorities in mind for what he wants to see.
With so many new faces on the 19-person Council, WOKV is sitting down one-on-one to talk through some of the big issues. New At-Large 5 Councilman Samuel Newby says the City needs to get ahead of crime.
“More officers on the street, because with more presence, crime will go down,” Newby says.
He believes prevention and intervention are important points, as well as a boost in officers. New Mayor Lenny Curry has already made it clear he will work toward boosting the force once again.
While crime is the hot topic, it’s not the only one. With two holes on Liberty Street on the Northbank, Newby says infrastructure needs to be another area of focus.
“If you don’t have good infrastructure, people won’t come. And if visitors don’t come, we can’t grow, we can’t go to the next level,” he says.
Business is the third area he wants to make a priority in his freshman year. He says Jacksonville should continue using incentives to attract businesses- especially Downtown- but he also wants to see the development push in other areas.
“Get more business on the Northside, because each city’s only as strong as its weakest link,” Newby says.
He tells WOKV he’s looking at forming something of a task force to figure out how to give a real boost on the Northside and in Northwest Jacksonville.
With all of these key issues, Newby says turning to new tax dollars to fulfill them should be a “last resort”. He believes the money already exists, it’s just finding it and prioritizing it that needs to be a focus.
Count on WOKV for continued coverage of how your representatives in City Hall want to tackle the upcoming budget and the next year.
