Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico held a press conference Monday to tout cuts to spending.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The battle over Jacksonville’s budget continues as the city’s finance committee finishes its series of budget hearings. One group is now celebrating what they consider to be ‘cutting wasteful spending.’ Mayor Donna Deegan is calling it a ‘political move.’
Council President Kevin Carrico held a press conference Monday on the steps of city hall surrounded by some of the republican members on the finance committee.
“We want to give the money back to the citizens. Over $13 million has been cut from your taxes. That money is coming back to you,” Carrico said.
They touted the committee’s 1/8th reduction to the city’s millage rate and cuts to what they consider to be wasteful spending. Those cuts include money for affordable housing and some of the funding for public health initiatives, like Healthlink Jax.
“It represents something bigger than just one-eighth. It represents our commitment to review our millage regularly and to ensure government doesn’t grow more than it needs,” Raul Arias, the chair of the city’s finance committee, said.
Mayor Donna Deegan also met with reporters Monday and criticized the cuts.
“It’s all because of political pressure from Tallahassee to do something that wasn’t even in their heads. But now all of a sudden it is more important to take a dollar and put it into the pockets of people that have homes, and by the way, 51% of our citizens are not homeowners, they’re renters, they’ll get nothing,” Deegan said.
Deegan argues the city already has the lowest millage rate out of any major city in the state and the cut would only come out to about $1 a month for property owners. She also argues the programs the finance committee is cutting are important for the overall wellbeing of the people who live in Jacksonville.
“This is a council that told us that we were on a fiscal cliff. They even have a fund set aside for the event that we should have a budget crisis next year because they’re predicting this fiscal cliff. So how can you argue that on one side and then say, but let’s cut the millage rate and give people back $1 but take $15 million out of the services we provide for them,” Deegan explained.
The finance committee’s budget also includes what Councilman Rory Diamond has dubbed his ‘Big Beautiful Budget Amendments.‘ These amendments ban spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, people without legal status and abortion. Diamond attended Carrico’s press conference and called on Deegan to support his amendments.
“The mayor is going to have to decide if she is with the vast majority of people or if she is in the pockets of the left-wing donors that control her,” Diamond said.
Deegan said these amendments do not belong in the budget since no money is attached to them. Her office is working with the Office of General Counsel to determine whether these are provisions she could veto.
“I am really, really disconcerted that went anywhere. But look, it is a distraction from what we’re actually dealing with here, like so much of what we’re talking about right now,” Deegan said.
The budget will now be discussed by the full city council with a final vote expected by the end of September.
Deegan will be holding a series of six town halls from Sept. 2 -18. The first one is planned for Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 6 p.m. at the Mandarin Senior Center. These are open to the public.