Baldwin Mayor Sean Lynch says his town would face a dire budget hit if the Jacksonville City Council follows through on zeroing out Jacksonville’s support for the Northeast Florida Regional Council.
Lynch said when the Jacksonville City Council’s Finance Committee eliminated $390,673 for the regional council in the 2025-26 budget, that hit home in Baldwin because the town relies heavily on using the regional council’s staff for its own planning services.
Losing the ability to continue that relationship would blow a hole in Baldwin’s budget because the town would have to hire its own staff, Lynch said.
“We’d be totally lost without the regional council,” Lynch said Aug. 29 at a meeting convened by City Council member Matt Carlucci.
Baldwin Mayor Sean Lynch, at left, talks to Jacksonville City Council member Matt Carlucci on Aug. 29, 2025 in Jacksonville City Hall.
City Council members Ken Amaro, Michael Boylan and Ju’Coby Pittman joined Carlucci in saying they want the full City Council to put the money back in for the regional council as Mayor Donna Deegan proposed for her 2025-26 budget.
“We have a fiduciary responsibility to be sure every dollar is well-spent, but it doesn’t mean you go swinging your axe willy-nilly,” Amaro said.
He said the seven-county regional council “has done a marvelous job in showing all of its members the return they receive on their investment.”
Jacksonville has been part of the regional council for the past half century through an interlocal agreement signed with six other counties: St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker, Flagler and Putnam.
Each county’s cost of belonging to the regional council is calculated at 41 cents per resident. Jacksonville is the biggest payer because it has the most population. The regional council’s board draws representatives from all seven counties.
Baldwin, located on the far Westside with a population of less than 1,500 residents, is both part of Jacksonville’s consolidate city-county government and separate from it, similar to the relationship the three Beaches cities have with Jacksonville. Property-owners in Baldwin pay property taxes to both Jacksonville and to their town.
The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office provide public safety services to Baldwin. The town has its own public works department and also decides how to handle the growth that’s coming from westward development in the county.
The town uses the regional council’s staff for guidance on those growth-management decisions.
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“The amount of support and work I get from the regional council is unbelievable,” Lynch said. “They’re a phone call away.”
Carlucci said he plans to file a budget amendement for restoring the city’s funding to the regional council.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Baldwin mayor asks Jacksonville to reverse budget cut