JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On Wednesday, people gathered at Mandarin High School for the first community meeting after the announcement that the city and the Jacksonville Jaguars have a plan for a 50-50 split of the $1.25 billion “Stadium of the Future” renovation project.
There will be four more community meetings in the next two weeks in locations throughout Jacksonville where Mayor Donna Deegan and Jaguars President Mark Lamping will take questions.
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After the meetings, it will be up to the city council, and ultimately the NFL owners, to put the final stamp on the deal.
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It’s a complicated plan that doesn’t involve raising taxes and News4JAX has been asking questions to those who drew up the deal and one council member who has been very critical of it. If a deal is signed, the city will also pay $150 million in maintenance and upkeep, bringing Jacksonville’s total to $775 million in tax dollars to renovate EverBank Stadium.
The deal involves using $775 million in tax dollars to renovate EverBank Stadium.
The city plans to do that by shifting Better Jacksonville Plan (BJP) money. The BJP, approved by voters in 2000, is a $2.25 billion comprehensive growth management program that provides road and infrastructure improvements, environmental preservation, targeted economic development and new and improved public facilities.
The so-called “Stadium of the Future” is going to have a lot of debate before it becomes reality. It’s hoped the city council can come to some type of agreement by the end of June. But one member, Councilman Rory Diamond, is already questioning parts of the deal.
For example, Diamond does not feel the city should kick in $150 million to fund neighborhood programs city-wide as part of the agreement.
“That is a really nice way of saying the mayor just wants to go out handing cash to her friends. That’s not how business should be done,” Diamond said. “Just look, if you think the stadium is a good deal, vote for the stadium, but don’t add all this other extra garbage.”
Diamond also doesn’t support moving around BJP money for the project.
“I wouldn’t support it. Look, we have this huge cloud over our head in Jacksonville, which is we have a big unfunded problem with our pension for our police and fire. The way we’re going to fix that is by using our half-cent sales tax from the Better Jacksonville Plan,” Diamond said. “Now the mayor is saying let’s push that off another four years before we start taking care of this huge problem. That’s crazy. We need to take care of the problem as soon as possible. Otherwise, it’ll cost us billions more down the road.”
Mike Weinstein negotiated the deal on behalf of the city and has served as the city’s chief financial officer under multiple mayors. He said the Better Jacksonville Plan, which was approved over 24 years ago to build city projects and then voters agreed to essentially extend it to pay off the city’s pension debt, has nothing to do with stadium construction.
Weinstein said the money would only be changed or shifted to give a better financial picture for the city it won’t affect the pension and will actually save money.
The city addressed the money and the BJP on a webpage created to explain the deal.
“A prior administration thought it would be a good idea to consider ending the BJP earlier than 2030, possibly at the end of 2026,” the city wrote. “This required taking projects that would have been paid for by the BJP sales tax, placing those projects in the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and borrowing money to complete those projects. This moved projects that would have been paid for with available City cash to requiring borrowing to get those projects completed. The pension funds by the approved referendum will receive 30 years of their half-penny or until they are both fully funded. Therefore, whether the BJP ends at the end of 2030 or 2026, the pension funds will be fully funded by the pension sales tax.”
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If the city follows through with the approved referendum BJP end date of 2030 and returns the projects that were taken out of the BJP and adds similar projects that can be added through City Council approval, the city explained, it will remove around $600 million from anticipated borrowing and save the taxpayer over $1.5 billion in debt payments and still get all the projects completed according to their schedules.
“During the next four budget cycles, it is recommended we place into the City’s CIP the required funding for our share of the renovation expenses according to the construction schedule and funding requirements matching the construction schedule,” the city wrote. “The way the CIP works is the City pays the expenses of the CIP projects from various City accounts as the costs occur and at the end of each year the city borrows the amount spent on the projects and reimburses the accounts the funding originally came from. The borrowing at the end of each year is then added to the City’s overall debt and paid for in the City’s debt service accounts. The goal is always to borrow less than we pay off each year.”
So, as for paying for the stadium, that will come from different money, not the Better Jacksonville Plan.
“Moving forward, as far as the construction goes, when there’s a construction expense, they pay half, we pay half. So we will need the funds over the next four years spread out as the construction occurs,” Weinstein said. “Ultimately, we will be, at the end of four or five years, we will have done the renovation and we will have ultimately borrowed for the money for that renovation...Each bond issue will be different. You could do 20-year, you can do 25, you can do 30-year. That’ll depend on the marketplace and the interest rates and what have you.”
These questions and more are what the city council will take up. If they approve then it has to be approved by the NFL owners and if that happens construction could begin after the next football season.
The “Stadium of the Future Community Huddles” are free and open to the public, with no registration required.
Here is the schedule:
- Mandarin High School, May 15, 6-7:30 p.m.
- Legends Center, May 16, 6-7:30 p.m.
- Fletcher High School, May 20, 6-7:30 p.m.
- Sandalwood High School, May 29, 6-7:30 p.m.
- Westside High School, May 30, 6-7:30 p.m.