{"id":167634,"date":"2025-08-22T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167634\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:55:09","slug":"jacksonville-finance-committee-approves-rory-diamonds-big-beautiful-budget-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167634\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Finance Committee approves Rory Diamond\u2019s \u2018Big Beautiful Budget Amendments\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 The city\u2019s Finance Committee held its final meeting on Friday to review the proposed $2 billion budget before it heads to the full city council for a vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>RELATED: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/08\/22\/committee-votes-to-cut-38600-in-funding-for-jaguars-box-seats-used-by-the-mayors-office-city-council\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/08\/22\/committee-votes-to-cut-38600-in-funding-for-jaguars-box-seats-used-by-the-mayors-office-city-council\/\"><b>Committee votes to cut $38,600 in funding for Jaguars suite seats used by the mayor\u2019s office, city council<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">During the meeting, however, council members approved a series of amendments introduced by Council member Rory Diamond, known as the \u201cBig Beautiful Budget Amendments.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">These amendments add several new restrictions to Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s budget proposal, including:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\">\n<p>A ban on taxpayer funding for people living in the country illegally<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\">\n<p>A ban on taxpayer funding for Diversity Equity and Inclusion (\u201cDEI\u201d) initiatives<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\">\n<p>A ban on taxpayer funding for abortion and abortion-related services as defined by Florida Statute<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Mayor Donna Deegan issued a statement in response to the amendments, which said:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 bqJyUE iQviKm block-quote\">\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 ewwUYq\">These divisive amendments do not belong in a budget bill. I\u2019m extremely disappointed that the majority of this Finance Committee went along with yet another attempt to polarize our community with toxic DC culture wars that hurt our city. We have so much momentum right now and I will not let us be distracted.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Donna Deegan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">On Aug. 5, councilman Rory Diamond said Mayor Deegan\u2019s budget proposes \u201cunsustainable and misplaced spending priorities,\u201d and shared the amendments mentioned above, along with two additional suggestions, as a counter to Deegan\u2019s proposed legislation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cMayor Deegan\u2019s budget is rife with money for woke programs with no substance. The burden on taxpayers is skyrocketing. Enough is enough. I am announcing the \u2018Big Beautiful Budget Amendments\u2019 to bring sanity back to Jacksonville, and to reward tax-paying citizens for doing the right thing,\u201d Diamond said in a news release on Aug. 5. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">After Diamond announced the amendments, News4JAX reached out to the mayor\u2019s office, which provided the following statement. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 bqJyUE iQviKm block-quote\">\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 ewwUYq\">Jacksonville already has the lowest property tax rate of any major city in Florida, and that revenue barely covers our police and fire expenses. Lowering the rate will put us a step behind today and have a compounding effect in the years ahead as public safety costs continue increasing and essential services are needed to support the fastest-growing population in Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 ewwUYq\">Our city has real momentum. All three major ratings agencies have issued a top-tier AA+ or AA rating due to our fiscally responsible and prudent budget management. Now is not the time to hurt our quality of life when we also face tough budgets in the years ahead, construction of a new jail, and the threat of major cuts forced by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Phil Perry, Chief Communications Officer with the City of Jacksonville<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to the city, the final budget must be approved by the full City Council before Oct. 1, the first day of the city\u2019s fiscal year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Typically, the City Council votes on the budget during its last Council meeting in September, which falls on the fourth Tuesday each September, the city said. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The city\u2019s Finance Committee held its final meeting on Friday to review the proposed $2&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,5310,3188,723,7310,69084,80,10177,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-167634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-mayor-deegan","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-rory-diamond","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115074886760991696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}