{"id":893630,"date":"2026-06-26T07:26:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893630\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T07:26:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:26:39","slug":"nick-howland-assumes-jacksonville-city-council-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893630\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Howland assumes Jacksonville City Council presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

At-large Republican\u00a0Nick Howland<\/strong> took the helm of the Jacksonville City Council<\/a><\/strong> Thursday, delivering an optimistic message.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are looking bright for the city of Jacksonville,\u201d Howland said.<\/p>\n

He cited public safety, infrastructure, and government services as three core areas where the government is excelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this presidency, we\u2019ll focus on the core first. And then we\u2019ll push further. Our mission this year will be to make local government work better for you. And we\u2019ll do that through three additional priorities. Fiscal responsibility, accountability, and job creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that while the outcome of the property tax amendment on which voters will decide in November is unknown, he hopes it passes because \u201cthe affordability crisis is real\u201d and the savings will help homesteaders.<\/p>\n

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

The Finance Committee, which will be chaired by\u00a0Will Lahnen<\/strong> and vice-chaired by\u00a0Chris Miller<\/strong>, will scrutinize \u201cevery line\u201d of the budget during August\u2019s hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf every dollar of spend this year, we\u2019ll ask three questions. Is it core? Is it duplicative, and do we have the money? When you set aside public safety, this year we will strive to deliver a smaller budget than we did last year. And this has not been done in Jacksonville since 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some funding will be held below the line, in reserve, due to the uncertainty the amendment creates as to revenue starting in 2027.<\/p>\n

He also proposes a new economic development mechanism by \u201chaving Jacksonville companies pay our completion grants for us in return for a credit against their future commercial and industrial property tax liabilities. We\u2019re calling it third party development incentive funding, or TDIF.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Howland believes the city \u201cmust be leaner, smarter, and get more creative with our money.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Howland also says he will bring CPACs to the table during Finance hearings this year, allowing these neighborhood groups to have their recommendations considered.<\/p>\n

Transparency is also key. He noted the Jacksonville Aviation Authority hasn\u2019t been recording its meetings, and that JEA hasn\u2019t recorded workshops or committee discussions.<\/p>\n

Howland, a Navy veteran, also says he wants to mandate that a condition of economic development will be to have military veteran set asides tied to the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder new legislation I will introduce next week, at least 10% of all new jobs created in part by a city incentive will go to military veterans, guard, reserves, or active duty spouses. We will call it the Stand for Service Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill will be introduced next week.<\/p>\n

Howland also intends to set up an inclusive committee structure, in a meaningful break from outgoing President\u00a0Kevin Carrico<\/strong>, who relegated some members to one committee while giving others disproportionate power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, out of our 10 chair and vice chair leadership positions, eight will be first termers. Five will be military veterans. It\u2019ll be bipartisan and everyone on this Council will have two committee assignments. It\u2019s a structure designed to operate as a team. We can disagree on policy. We can debate politics. We can even argue procedure, but we all want what\u2019s best for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howland said committee assignments will be released Friday, but noted that\u00a0Mike Gay<\/strong> will chair the Rules Committee.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority will be pressed to ensure that Cecil Spaceport ramps up this year. He believes the space sector is booming and that the city has a unique opportunity to take a leadership role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market is booming, and it\u2019ll pass us by if we don\u2019t move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At-large Republican\u00a0Nick Howland took the helm of the Jacksonville City Council Thursday, delivering an optimistic message. \u201cThings are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":893631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,63150,3188,723,7310,13113,16955,362313,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,362314],"class_list":["post-893630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-chris-miller","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-city-council","tag-nick-howland","tag-stand-for-service-act","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-will-lahnen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116815227269518792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893630","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=893630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}