Council approved a tentative budget Tuesday night, but residents are pushing to restore the $4.9 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund before its final approval.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville City Council approved a tentative $2.2 billion city budget Tuesday night, but affordable housing remained a major point of contention as residents urged council members to restore millions of dollars cut from the proposal.

The council voted 16-1 to move the tentative budget, which allocates more than half of its funding for public safety, forward. Councilman Rory Diamond was the only member to vote against it, as he did during last week’s Finance Committee vote.



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During Tuesday night’s public hearing, residents repeatedly called on the council to restore $4.9 million for an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The money was included in Mayor Donna Deegan’s proposed budget but was among about $23 million cut by the Finance Committee last week.

“Jacksonville’s an awesome place. Let’s keep people here and let them afford to live,” one resident told the council.

Another resident called the Affordable Housing Trust Fund “very important,” and others urged council members to establish the fund as a way to address the city’s affordable housing needs.

Councilman Matt Carlucci held a public meeting before Tuesday night’s council meeting to discuss an amendment that would restore the $4.9 million.

“When that got cut then, it did away with hopes that many people have for workforce housing,” Carlucci said. “I’m talking about nurses, firefighters, working folks, but they just can’t quite get to that home.”

Carlucci said he plans to bring the amendment back during the council’s final budget vote Sept. 22.

“That’ll go a long way towards helping a lot of people and that’s what we’re supposed to be doing up here,” he said.

The Finance Committee’s proposed budget was created with the possibility of Amendment 3’s passing in mind. If the referendum is approved by Florida voters in November, homestead exemptions will go up, cutting the amount of property taxes that can be collected by local governments. 

Finance Chair Will Lahnen said during the Sept. 1 meeting that, if it passes, they would need to scale down the budget by about $200 million in the first year. 

“We’ve also said repeatedly, let’s not start anything new, especially if it’s an expense-only item with no offsetting revenue to the city,” Lahnen said. He used the Affordable Housing Trust as an example.

Other council members also said Tuesday night’s vote does not mean the budget is finalized.

Councilman Rahman Johnson said he voted for the tentative budget, but he would still like to see some changes.

“I will be voting yes on the tentative budget but I will be making some amendments to the budget when we bring the final budget up for vote,” Johnson said.

“Right now, it’s a tentative budget, we can still make changes on council night,” Councilman Jimmy Peluso said.

The city will hold another public hearing before the final vote.

Until then, council members can propose amendments to the tentative budget, including changes involving funding for affordable housing.