City Council's scrutiny of Mayor Deegan's budget wraps up on a positive note

Heading into the final day of workshops on Mayor Donna Deegan's budget, the biggest open question was whether the City Council Finance Committee would chisel away at $25 million that Deegan wants to set aside for future spending decisions that could put her stamp on the budget.

The $25 million was fully intact when the Finance Committee wrapped up its budget review on Friday, allowing Deegan time to wait for her transition committees to complete their ongoing studies and make recommendations that she'll sift through for her own budget requests to City Council by the end of the year.

The seventh and final budget workshop came a day after the committee took about $232,000 Deegan wanted for a chief of diversity and inclusion on her staff and transferred the money to the Human Rights Commission and the public works department. Deegan went in person to the committee trying to convince it to fully approve the budget for the mayor's office as she proposed it.

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The last workshop didn't repeat that dust-up. The Finance Committee dipped into the city's financial reserves to pay for the addition of a few projects, leaving untouched the $25 million in the "to be determined" bucket.

"You know, apologies to the media," council member Kevin Carrico said as the meeting Friday came to a close. "I think they came out here looking for some fireworks or something, but that isn't how it went down. We decided to work together and do what was right for the city, and in all these seven days, I think we had one issue we agreed to disagree on."

Finance Committee Chairman Nick Howland said the overall $1.75 billion budget delivers on priorities shared by council members and Deegan.

As is usually the case, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department will get the largest amount of money. Howland has said during the budget workshops that public safety is a top priority for City Council.

"I think we've funded some very significant activities for our city," Howland said. "We've agreed with the mayor on a number of them including fully funding JSO and adding 40 more officers, fully funding JFRD and the growth necessary to keep our community safe."

He cited the increase in spending on mowing roadsides and for continued investment in infrastructure such as drainage, streets, sidewalks and public buildings. The capital improvement program budget will be about $400 million, which is less than the $500 million this year in Lenny Curry's final budget as mayor, but still a large amount. Howland said the city also pumped up its emergency reserves.

Interim Chief Financial Officer Mike Weinstein said the Deegan administration is "very pleased" at the outcome. Deegan took office on July 1 and had to submit her proposed 2023-24 budget weeks later.

"We were able to work with the council and the mayor's priorities are illustrated throughout the budget, whether it be public safety with police and fire, or landscaping and mowing and all the other public health and infrastructure issues," Weinstein said.

The $1.75 billion general fund for the city is a nearly 14% increase over this year's $1.54 billion budget, a jump powered by the economy generating more taxes.

The city's property tax rate will once again be about $11.32 per $1,000 of taxable property value for areas excluding the three Beaches cities and Baldwin, which each will make their own decisions affecting the tax rates for property within their city limits.

The owner of a home valued at $150,000 for tax purposes that qualifies for a $50,000 homestead exemption will get a $1,132 tax bill from the city later this year.

The city's share of the property tax bill paid by Duval County property-owners does not include the tax rates for the Duval County School District, the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Florida Inland Navigation District, whose boards set their own rates.

Howland said he is comfortable about leaving the $25 million in undesignated money because any request Deegan makes still will need to get council's approval. The Finance Committee on Friday considered adding more money to the 2023-24 budget for the library system and the Kids Hope Alliance but decided to wait for Deegan to make her requests since those are areas her transition committees are still examining.

Deegan also will be gearing up to have negotiations with the Jaguars about renovating the city-owned football stadium and extending the team's lease to use the stadium.

The budget contains $20 million that could go toward renovating the city-owned football stadium. Howland said the budget also ramps up pay-as-you-go spending with cash on infrastructure projects in place of issuing debt.

Howland said that "saves money in the long run" and will give the city more financial space to handle the cost of renovating the stadium.

He said he would not vote for a property tax rate increase to cover the cost of the stadium renovation.

The full City Council will vote Sept. 26 on the budget. The City Council Auditor's Office and the Office of General Counsel will have to work by then to create term sheets for a long list of organizations that won support Friday for funding ranging in amounts from $10,000 to several hundred thousands dollars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Finance Committee finds common ground with Mayor Deegan's budget