As pointed out by Abel Harding in a recent Florida Times Union blog entry, Florida and Jacksonville taxpayers are on the hook for $918,000 in incentive money given in 2006 to commercial lender CIT Group Inc which is now in the 5th largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.  There is no word on whether the Jacksonville taxpayer will get any return on its “investment”, i.e. jobs promised in return for the incentive money, even though this seems unlikely now. Wouldn’t we have more fun if the government would simply throw all our money in a pit and set it on fire so that we could at least roast marshmallows over the flames and sing “Kumbaya” together?

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The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County has released a report today on the 2009-2010 Jacksonville city budget. This report reflects our observations on the proposed budget and our recommendations for program cuts that could minimize or even eliminate the need for an increase in the millage rate. This report has been sent to the members of the Jacksonville City Council who will be deliberating on the budget this Thursday. You can view the report at http://jaxtaxpayers.org/pdfs/BudgetReviewReport.pdf.

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The Florida Times Union today released a database of 2008-2009 raises for Jacksonville City employees.  It is quite revealing to say the least.  The largest raise was for Manager of Accounting Services-Grants Devin Carter who received a whopping 87.16 percent raise – a $29,574 difference in salary from 2008 to 2009!   I certainly know that I did not receive a double digit raise for 2009.  I doubt that many Jacksonville taxpayers did too especially in this economy.

I accept that some of the salary increase may have been due to new bachelors degrees which led to promotions or something similar to this.  Clearly, this could be a legitimate recognition of the improved skill set brought about through higher education. However, 586 employees out of 8,116 – about 7 percent of the city workforce – received raises of 10 percent or more. Clearly, this has to be explained before we taxpayers will accept a 12 percent tax increase

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Last Tuesday (July 28), the Jacksonville City Council voted on the proposed millage rate for the 2009/2010 city budget. Here is how they voted.

The following City Council members voted to lower your taxes by keeping the millage rate as it currently is, specifically 8.48 mills.

Bill Bishop, Richard Clark, John Crescimbeni, Daniel Davis, Johnny Gaffney, Art Graham, Ray Holt, Glorious Johnson, Denise Lee, Clay Yarborough

The following City Council members voted to raise your taxes by 12 percent as proposed by Mayor Peyton.

Reggie Brown, Michael Corrigan, Ronnie Fussell, Kevin Hyde, Warren Jones, Stephen Joost, Don Redman, Art Shad, Jack Webb

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Well, budget season is now upon us in Jacksonville.  In his recent budget address, Mayor John Peyton asked for a 12 percent increase in our millage rate.  According to Peyton, without this tax hike, we will have to make deep cuts in services vital to the Jacksonville taxpayer.  We are talking about closing fire stations.  Parks will become jungles without adequate landscaping.  Our streets will be overflowing with criminals if the Jacksonville Journey is not funded for another year.  Peyton’s speech enters the world of hyperbole when he stated “Is it your plan to shut down government?”. Chicken Little is no longer saying that the sky is falling. Instead, he just threw up his wings and left town.

What makes the budget process insane is that in a scant two weeks after the budget was unveiled, the City Council must decide what the initial millage rate will be for the city budget. Yes, that is two weeks to study the budget and determine if a millage rate increase is needed or whether more cuts in the budget are possible. Of course, the millage rate can be set lower later once budgets cuts have been identified. But once the genie is let out of the bottle by giving the mayor his millage rate increase, reducing it could be harder to do this once the mayor gets the momentum moving in his direction.

However, if we do not want the millage rate increase and we do not want the mayor’s three fees, we have to identify what to cut in the budget. The worst thing that we can do is to cut say 10 percent from everything in the budget. Not everything is equal in the budget. Public safety and roads are a far higher priority than the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the Cultural Council. Prioritizing city spending is crucial as we must cut from the budget those expenditures that are superfluous to its city’s central mission of providing essential services utilized by the vast majority of the public that cannot be provided by the private sector.

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We have another “emergency” bill probably coming up for a vote at the Jacksonville City Council meeting this Tuesday. The bill is 2009-467 and its purpose is to appropriate $168,078 for the installation of a new batting cage and picnic pavilion at Wingate Park in Jacksonville Beach.  Apparently, the “emergency” is that the contractor specified in the bill (Jaguar Builders of Jax, Inc.) is working at a location close to the park.  On account of this lucky break, the contractor avoids the competitive bidding process and the usual construction bond requirement. It would be very unfortunate that after the City Council made the right decision by rejecting the no bid Trail Ridge contract that they would so quickly abandon the competitive bidding process on such flimsy grounds. The bill is sponsored by the incoming City Council President Richard Clark. Hopefully, this is not a sign of the City Council’s future under his leadership.

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As usual, the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC) is prostating itself in front of another business that is moving jobs to Jacksonville.  Whertec Inc. is planning a move to the Westside of Jacksonville and the JEDC already has its checkbook open to the tune of $48,600 (yes, we taxpayers fund the bank account on which the checks are written!). Is it just me or does it seem like every business decision these days starts with “What kind of government grant can we get to finance our business expansion?”

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Two years ago, the Peyton administration and Jacksonville City Council decided that we Duval County taxpayers did not deserve the property tax relief promised to us by the Florida Legislature and imposed three new taxes on us. Now, the stormwater and garbage tax bill has hit us for the second time. This bill is twice as large as the last one.

Please join us in our effort to repeal these new taxes before it is too late.

On June 9th at 4 PM, let’s gather outside of City Hall prior to the City Council meeting and call for the repeal of these taxes!

Once the City Council meeting starts, you can tell City Council that the fees need to go during the public comment portion of the meeting. We need as many people to show up as possible. If we do not stop this tax now, it will become more difficult to remove in the future and will become a burden for generations to come in Jacksonville!

We seek nothing less than the immediate and permanent repeal of the ordinances authorizing the new fees:

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The newly redesigned website for Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County has a web based content management system, a blog, online payment for membership fees, and links to their social network pages as well as the ability for readers to share content from the web site via their own social networks.

It is the mission of the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc., to prevent, identify, and publicize all forms of fiscal waste, extravagance, and imprudence within and by the government which impacts residents of Duval County, Florida.

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If you want to know what is wrong with city government spending in Jacksonville, take a look at bill 2009-403 that is coming up for a public hearing on Tuesday May 26th.  It spends $5,800 of taxpayer money to restore the Lakeshore Entrance Arches (see the picture to the left).  According to the bill summary, “the Lake Shore entryway at Blanding Boulevard, Appleton Street and Bayview Road was designated as a historic landmark by the City Council earlier this year. The entryway was constructed in 1925 in the Mediterranean style at the height of the Florida land boom.”  So basically what we are talking about is spending taxpayer money to fix up some old structure because someone decided that it has “historic” value.

If this is not bad enough, the money is being awarded to Rhodes Stucco without competitive bidding. The exemption is based upon Section 126.107(g) of the Ordinance Code which stipulates that “supplies or services to be provided by those specifically prescribed within authorizing legislation that appropriates the same” can be exempted from competitive bidding. You would think after the uproar over the no bid Trail Ridge contract to Waste Management that competitive bidding would be the way to go.  But apparently the City Council thinks that the amount is low enough that no one will notice. As you can see, Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County has noticed!

This is also touted as an emergency expenditure. Emergency?! Unless this structure is about to collapse and take out a busload of nuns, this is hardly an emergency!

I do not see how this repairing this structure could be considered a valid government function. If anything, it is a waste of taxpayer money!

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