JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s initiatives were on the chopping block Thursday as the council finance committee began scrubbing through her proposed budget.
The committee is looking to cut spending to fill a roughly $27 million hole, which is the result of shifting funding for some initiatives from debt to cash and slashing property taxes by $13.4 million.
Finance Chair Raul Arias (R-District 11) pushed for the property tax reduction, which advanced through the committee Thursday morning.
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“So, some programs will be cut to relieve and give some relief to those people in Jacksonville,” said Arias.
Council Vice President Nick Howland (R-Group 3 At-Large) noted city spending on non-core government functions has seen major increases in recent years, jumping from $337 million to $545 million a year since 2017.
“This is all of those nonprofits and incentives and everything like that, which represents scope-creep in government,” said Howland.
And those types of items were on the chopping block.
The committee voted to cut $2.1 million for a Telehealth pilot project, a $230,000 dental access program, $110,000 for an infant mortality program, and $390,000 for the North Florida Regional Council.
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Mayor Deegan criticized the committee’s decision to target health programs in particular.
“If public safety is a priority to you, then the health of our community plays into public safety,” said Deegan.
She also questioned the logic behind the property tax cut, which she calculated would save the average homeowner just a little more than a dollar per month.
“We invested in this budget in the very things that people told us in meeting after meeting they wanted to invest in,” said Deegan. ”So, I will let these council people explain to the voters of Jacksonville why a dollar back in their pocket every month, for some of them, is going to be better than providing the services that everybody knows that we need to be a world-class city.”
In total, the committee cut $7 million in its first meeting, meaning there’s still a roughly $20 million hole to address.
Mayor Deegan noted the meeting was just the first step in a long process, and she’s hopeful some of the cuts made Thursday will be reversed before the final budget is passed.
The finance committee meets again on Friday morning.
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