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Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan spoke out against last-minute additions to the city budget on Monday, arguing they are distractions meant to divide the city.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax told you Friday<\/a> when the finance committee added in language into the budget to prohibit city funds from being spent on diversity, equity and inclusion, immigrants without legal status in the country and abortion.<\/p>\n Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13) pushed for all three amendments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re saying no, Donna, there will be no money for DEI. No, Donna, there will be no money for abortions. No, Donna, there will be no money for illegal immigration,\u201d said Diamond during a Monday press conference.<\/p>\n The language was added into the proposed budget months after Mayor Donna Deegan vetoed legislation<\/a> that would have prevented the city from contracting with organizations that offer services to immigrants without legal status.<\/p>\n A vote by the council to override that veto failed.<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAll of these things were put in simply to basically throw a grenade in the middle of the process,\u201d said Deegan on Monday.<\/p>\n The mayor argued the policy items have no business in the city budget and only aim to sow division.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a distraction from what we\u2019re actually dealing with here, like so much of what we\u2019re talking about right now,\u201d said Deegan.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not clear whether the mayor could use her line-item veto authority to remove those spending restrictions individually, or whether she\u2019d have to veto the entire budget to push back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense to me that you could put something into the budget that is not a spending issue, first of all. But if you can, then why couldn\u2019t you also veto that provision?\u201d said Deegan. \u201dWe\u2019re waiting on hearing from the General Counsel on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Line-item vetoes only take a simple majority vote of council to override, which wouldn\u2019t likely be a difficult hurdle for the Republican supermajority to overcome.<\/p>\n But if the mayor vetoes the full budget, it\u2019s unclear whether a two-thirds majority would be needed.<\/p>\n Council President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4), who supported the spending restriction amendments, said the council is still seeking answers to those questions.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, the mayor is not going to want to support those items. It\u2019s going to be counterproductive to her political lens, which is different than my political lens and a lot of the members on council. So, we\u2019ll see,\u201d said Carrico.<\/p>\n One thing is certain, failure to approve a budget before the start of the next fiscal year would not lead to any type of local government shutdown.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s no new spending plan in place by October 1st, city funding will simply continue at its current levels until a new budget is passed.<\/p>\n