{"id":66286,"date":"2025-07-15T01:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T01:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66286\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T01:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T01:27:09","slug":"mayor-unveils-budget-plan-with-87-5-million-for-downtown-riverfront-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66286\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor unveils budget plan with $87.5 million for downtown riverfront parks"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan presented a $2 billion balanced budget proposal to the city council, pointing to significant investments that would put plans in motion to move past the \u201ccity of renderings\u201d nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we once were a city of renderings and potential, we are now a city of construction and achievement,\u201d Deegan said in her presentation to the city council.<\/p>\n

The budget allocates $87 million for downtown riverfront parks development and improvements. The mayor said the park projects are fully funded in part due to the Community Benefits Agreement in the Stadium of the Future deal. <\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Mayor highlights public safety, affordable housing, literacy initiatives & road improvements in $2B budget proposal<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Deegan emphasized the city\u2019s transition from planning to action during her presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great plan and we should move forward with it,\u201d Deegan said. <\/p>\n

The proposed budget includes $26 million for park improvements citywide. Additionally, she earmarked $500,000 for pool maintenance and just under $2 million for lifeguard staffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can\u2019t figure out how to keep the pools open, it\u2019s easy to imagine the public wouldn\u2019t have much trust in us to do the big things,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n

City Council President Kevin Carrico expressed encouragement for the balanced budget proposal, which doesn\u2019t rely on reserve funds. Now, the Finance Committee will take a look at the full plan and offer its adjustments.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/b>Mayor\u2019s full budget address<\/b><\/a>|<\/b>Budget highlights<\/b><\/a>|<\/b>Full budget proposal<\/b><\/a>|<\/b>Full CIP proposal<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we go forward we get to dive in and look at the details,\u201d Carrico said. \u201cLook at it line by line and see if there are other things or other priorities that the council wants to fund. Or things that maybe don\u2019t align with us that we can switch them out or make changes. That\u2019s what the budget process is for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Finance Committee will begin reviewing the budget on August 7, marking the start of a detailed examination process. The City Council must approve a final budget by the end of September.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan presented a $2 billion balanced budget proposal to the city council,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3232,3188,723,7310,5312,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-66286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-parks","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114854654395998034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66286","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=66286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}