{"id":242217,"date":"2025-09-20T20:10:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242217\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T20:10:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:10:22","slug":"stakeholders-lean-on-jacksonville-city-council-to-leave-millage-rate-flat-will-lawmakers-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242217\/","title":{"rendered":"Stakeholders lean on Jacksonville City Council to leave millage rate flat. Will lawmakers cave?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Jacksonville City Council cuts property tax rates<\/a><\/strong> from 11.3619 mills to 11.1919 mills, they can\u2019t say they weren\u2019t warned of the consequences.<\/p>\n

Florida Politics has obtained text messages to Republicans pushing for a millage cut from some of the most important people in the city, illustrating that the \u201cred\u201d versus \u201cblue\u201d dichotomies rehearsed on national and state stages don\u2019t necessarily apply during local fiscal debates.<\/p>\n

Those stakeholders warn of political and policy consequences if the legislative branch in fact cuts the millage rate by 1\/8 mill<\/a><\/strong> during Tuesday\u2019s final budget vote, which comes after tax cut proponents failed to get the cut added to the spending plan during a previous meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rollback idea is bad fiscal policy and bad politics,\u201d warns former Mayor\u00a0John Peyton<\/strong> to Finance Chair\u00a0Raul Arias<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore people are paying attention than you think and recognize this move for what it is \u2014 a self-serving maneuver to secure leadership or re-election. The optics are terrible! The donor class, corporate, and not-for-profit leadership are absolutely paying attention and have long memories,\u201d Peyton adds, suggesting Arias \u201ctake a long walk on the beach\u201d to reconsider his position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe politics of this rollback are not good for your future political career,\u201d Peyton adds, saying the decision is not \u201cabout\u201d Mayor\u00a0Donna Deegan<\/strong>, who Arias and other Republicans target as a big-spender who won\u2019t give tax relief to citizens.<\/p>\n

Peyton promises that an \u201calarming report\u201d from the Civic Council about the city\u2019s woeful fiscal position will make any tax cut \u201cdifficult to defend\u201d in future elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice\/Fire\/business community collectively have a long memory,\u201d Peyton adds.<\/p>\n

Arias did not respond to the texts. But during the last City Council meeting, he said he \u201cwill win the next election without the Civic Council,\u201d striking a defiant posture that could add intrigue to his 2027 campaign.<\/p>\n

Peyton also told\u00a0Terrance Freeman<\/strong>, a Republican who is eyeing a state House run next year, similar things, saying the \u201coptics are terrible and will be hard to explain when the bills for our bold and necessary project(s) come in \u2014 stadium, raise for safety workers, UF campus, and jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hap Stein<\/strong> wrote Council VP\u00a0Nick Howland<\/strong> similarly, urging him to \u201cmake the hard decisions in the face of political pressure\u201d and choose \u201csound fiscal policy over political expediency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howland, unlike the others, responded in defense of the \u201cmodest tax reduction\u201d and accusing the \u201cmedia of perpetuating a false narrative that we are cutting,\u201d adding that the Council\u2019s budget increases city spending 7% year over year, and that the city is still spending 91% of new revenue even with the millage haircut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are spending a LOT more than in previous years,\u201d Howland said.<\/p>\n

State leaders, including CFO\u00a0Blaise Ingoglia<\/strong><\/a> and state GOP Chair\u00a0Evan Power<\/strong><\/a>, have come to town to give political support to the Council.<\/p>\n

Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/strong><\/a> said the city had room to cut as well, citing a promotional gimmick<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know they spent tens of thousands of dollars to create a hologram of the Mayor to put at Jacksonville International Airport. Do you want to pay property taxes to fund that? I mean, probably not, I think most people would say,\u201d the Governor said in Apalachicola.<\/p>\n

As Peyton\u2019s comments above suggest, Jacksonville is facing some profound fiscal challenges and has limited mechanisms for meeting them.<\/p>\n

Truth in Accounting<\/strong><\/a> reported a per capita debt of nearly $10,000 for every person in the city, which puts Jacksonville 60th out of 75 cities ranked, with millage identified as a key funding source to keeping the bleeding from getting worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety expenses, which account for 53% of total governmental costs, rose by $418.1 million adding financial strain. Property taxes, the largest revenue source, remain crucial to Jacksonville\u2019s fiscal health.\u201d<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Redfin<\/strong><\/a> notes, Jacksonville property taxes went up 60% between 2019 and 2024, roughly double the country\u2019s overall rate of increase during the same five-year period.<\/p>\n

Pension problems are also an issue. The Tributary notes that the\u00a0Police and Fire Pension Fund<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is $3 billion in debt and is just 44% funded. As of 2023, the General Employees\u2019 Pension Fund was nearly $1.4 billion in debt.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the city is moving to put police and fire in the\u00a0Florida Retirement System<\/a><\/strong>, which could add more than $26.5 million a year to outflows starting in two years.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s stadium spending.<\/p>\n

The Mayor and the Council agreed to devote five years of a half-cent sales tax which was slated to be repurposed to retiring that legacy defined benefit\u00a0pension debt<\/a><\/strong>, with the city pleading with Tallahassee to allow that back in 2017, to going in 50\/50 with Shad Khan<\/strong>\u00a0in renovating the\u00a0Jaguars\u2019<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0stadium, at a cost of\u00a0$775 million<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to taxpayers.<\/p>\n


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