{"id":174184,"date":"2025-08-25T11:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174184\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T11:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:22:10","slug":"amid-ongoing-spat-with-mayor-city-council-president-expected-to-lay-out-plan-to-cut-spending-lower-property-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174184\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid ongoing spat with mayor, City Council president expected to lay out plan to cut spending, lower property taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s budget proposal remains a hot topic at City Hall, as the fight over taxpayer money intensifies.<\/p>\n

City Council President Kevin Carrico is hosting a news conference on Monday where he is expected to lay out his \u201cbold plan\u201d to lower property taxes and eliminate what he calls unnecessary government spending.<\/p>\n

Deegan and Carrico have been trading jabs over the proposed property tax cuts and what Carrico calls \u201cpolitician perks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico is pushing legislation to reform how city-owned venue tickets are handed out after introducing his own DEEGAN amendment<\/a>, taking a direct swipe at the mayor.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>\u2018Stop lecturing City Council\u2019: Mayor Deegan, council president spar over proposed budget cuts<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

But Deegan has said she would consider legislation that would eliminate free tickets for city officials to all city events.<\/p>\n

Late last week, the City Council\u2019s Finance Committee voted to cut more than $38,000 in funding for the city\u2019s suite at EverBank Stadium<\/a> \u2014 a move that ends a 30-year tradition of both the mayor\u2019s office and councilmembers having access to gameday seats.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>TPC and Timberlake: Which councilmembers got the most free event tickets in 2024? Here\u2019s what city records show<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

City service funding<\/b><\/p>\n

Beyond free event tickets, the battle continues between the council and the Mayor\u2019s Office over funding for city services, with several health programs for the uninsured on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Programs like Healthlink JAX, Project Save Lives, and Dental Care Access could be fully eliminated. These initiatives provide uninsured residents with access to clinics, prescriptions, and preventive care.<\/p>\n

Jax CareConnect told News4JAX that they\u2019re still seeing high demand for referrals and say the need for their services is only growing.<\/p>\n

Just last week, the finance committee reached an agreement to add back $1.7 million in funding for the Meals on Wheels program<\/a> that had initially been among proposed cuts to the mayor\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s administration originally asked for $2.1 million for senior services to combat food insecurity for the city\u2019s elderly population.<\/p>\n

Property tax cuts<\/b><\/p>\n

When it comes to Carrico\u2019s plan to cut property taxes, Deegan has called the proposal \u201cfiscally irresponsible\u201d and said she\u2019s hopeful that the cuts will be rejected once it goes before the full city council in September.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Mayor Deegan speaks to press after Florida DOGE auditors arrive in Jacksonville<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI am sincerely hopeful that once it gets to the full council, that we\u2019ll have less performers and more statesmen,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cThis is clearly something that is just so fiscally irresponsible for us right now, and it frankly just doesn\u2019t give any tax relief to speak of. It gives people a little more than a buck a month into their pockets, and it takes millions of dollars away from what we can spend on public safety, what we can spend on roads and sidewalks and potholes, and these are the things that people are telling us they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico, who represents District 4 on the Southside, pushed back against Deegan\u2019s remarks on property tax cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing performative about delivering real savings, millions of dollars of tax cuts to Jacksonville property owners who have been feeling the pinch or rising costs over the past few years,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe it feels performative to someone who gets chauffeured around by a taxpayer\u2013funded driver and doles out six-figure salaries to her friends \u2013 but it sure doesn\u2019t feel that way to the working-class residents I represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico also said the Finance Committee has \u201cidentified tens of millions in unnecessary spending and waste inside the mayor\u2019s own budget,\u201d and said that money could be reallocated without sacrificing core services.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Council will do the work the mayor refuses to do \u2013 combing through the budget and finding real waste that can be trimmed while preserving police, fire and core city functions,\u201d Carrico said. \u201cMayor Deegan should stop lecturing city council and start listening to the people who elected us. If she won\u2019t take fiscal responsibility seriously, the council will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deegan responded to Carrico\u2019s statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said in my comments yesterday, it\u2019s my hope that we\u2019ll have less performers and more statesmen as the budget moves to the full City Council in September. Council President Carrico\u2019s disingenuous and divisive statement today emphasizes this point. People across the city are hurting while he cheers on millions of dollars in cuts to programs that make housing more affordable, reduce homelessness, and improve health care access. I look forward to discussing these adjustments to a well-developed, balanced budget with all 19 council members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s budget proposal remains a hot topic at City Hall, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":174185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,10083,3188,723,7310,14630,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-174184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donna-deegan","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-kevin-carrico","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115089148830745229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174184","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=174184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}