JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council unanimously passed Mayor Donna Deegan’s $1.7 billion budget on Tuesday night. But it didn’t come without several debates.
“This final budget makes generational investments to ensure Jacksonville’s citizens are healthy, safe, housed, and thriving. I’m grateful for President Salem and Vice President White’s leadership and I thank the full City Council for their collaboration. I look forward to our continued proactive partnership as we work together to implement these dollars for the community,” Deegan said in a statement.
The first debate lasted an hour on the first budget amendment item which came from Councilman Terrance Freeman who requested $3.1 million from the Mayor’s Task Force Contingency Fund for homelessness initiatives.
Councilman Jimmy Peluso was against where that money would come from and he made an amendment for it to come from the general fund instead. That ultimately failed along with the initial amendment.
Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman remarked that she’s spent decades working with the homeless and that money is always needed but that money isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things.
All the council members seemed to agree that city money needs to be dedicated to homeless initiatives but where it would come from and how it would be used seemed to be the hangup for some of the council members.
Freeman was hoping to have the money set aside to ensure it could help with the city’s homelessness problem.
Peluso withdrew his amendments for the $20 million for the Riverfront Plaza and the $40 million for the Shipyards West Park projects. He did make a remark saying he’s hoping those projects are the innovative projects that the city is promising and not just a big patch of grass with a few amenities.
The final budget covers everything from infrastructure to community outreach to entertainment and goes into effect on Oct. 1.
This year, the council finance committee has cut some of Deegan’s plans for diversity programs, but there were not any major controversial issues facing the budget this year.