JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In 22 days, Duval County residents should know who will be Jacksonville’s new mayor: Democrat Donna Deegan or Republican Daniel Davis.
Face it, it’s been a nasty race, with negative ads and lots of finger-pointing.
Outside of JEA and affordable housing, one issue during this election season that has come up a lot has been Confederate monuments and the lack of action by the city to remove them.
Currently, there is a Confederate monument located in Springfield Park, but should tax dollars be used to take it down? The candidates are split on that and so is the public.
MORE: Removing Confederate statue from Springfield Park could cost at least $1.2 million | UNF poll reveals what Jacksonville voters care most about
There are still protests for and against removing the monument and whether the city should spend money to do so. Right now nearly half a million has been budgeted for its removal but the city council has not signed off. News4JAX asked voters on Monday if this should be a campaign issue and should tax dollars be used to remove the monument.
C. J. Young opposes tax dollars for removal.
“I definitely have a problem with that,” Young said. “Only because, you know, we all do pay taxes and they could be going to a lot better things than ripping down a statue. You know, we have so many potholes in the road, so many things going on in Jacksonville that could be fixed.”
But there were voters like Raye Blair who said it’s time for them to go and yes spend the money.
“Because it’s the 21st century and they need to be gone,” Blair said. “It’s inappropriate that we are honoring the losers of a civil war that tried to take this country down.”
It’s a question that both candidates have been asked and it came up again at last week’s debate at the University of North Florida.
“I have said repeatedly I would spend public money, just as our current mayor has said he would do to remove those confederate monuments to make sure that people don’t have to walk by them, and be reminded of the time in our history, that quite frankly, we should be ashamed of,” Deegan said.
“I am not going to use taxpayer dollars to remove any monument in Jacksonville,” Davis said. “I believe we need to focus on how we spend our money and the children in the high-risk neighborhoods. If we were going to spend $1 million to take down a monument what better use could we use that money for?”
While this issue is one for the city council to decide, it would be the pressure from the mayor’s office to either move forward or back off which could come up in the next budget this summer which the new mayor will present to the city council.