JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than likely, Jacksonville’s first responders will be getting a raise next year, and it looks like pensions will also be back in play.
It’s all part of negotiations the city has been having with the police and fire unions.
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Last week, firefighters announced they could get a hefty pay hike if their new contract is approved, and police are heading in the same direction.
And pensions for new hires, which have been controversial in the past, could be coming back.
In 2016, residents voted to extend the half-cent sales tax to pay off pension debt and new police and firefighters were then put on a 401K plan. Well, that could evolving once again. What’s happening now is pensions could be returning not through the city, but through the state, and Mayor Donna Deegan is getting credit.
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The city will continue its negotiations with police for a new contract later this week, and like firefighters, it’s expected they will get a substantial raise and return to a pension plan for new hires in three years. That pension plan is with the Florida Retirement System (FRS), something the head of the union said is vital to recruiting.
“It means a lot for us here locally,” said Randy Reaves, Local FOP President. “It gets us back on par with the other 66 out of 67 counties in Florida that have a pension, have a defined benefit. Seven years ago, a previous administration sold us that we would move away from the pension, and that we would be the first of many agencies to move away from a pension. Seven years later, here we are, and we’re still the only county in the state of Florida that does not have a defined benefit for their first responders.”
The same was agreed to last week for firefighters.
It still needs to be voted on by union members and the city council will need to approve it, but it looks like it’s all going to happen.
“I said when I was running for mayor that I wanted to look hard at that, that I was listening to the unions, and they very much felt that in order to be able to recruit and retain people, they needed to return to some sort of a pension,” Deegan said. “The FRS made the most sense to me then, it makes the most sense to me now. And in all those discussions, we just tried to find a way to get to the point where we could include that and I believe that’s where we’re going.”
News4JAX Political Analyst Rick Mullaney has watched this pension saga through the years.
“The challenge in doing that is really two questions: Number one, what’s that going to cost? And number two, how you’re going to pay for it?” Mullaney said.
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The mayor’s staff said it has some calculations, but doesn’t have an exact figure. It all depends on how many employees would sign up in three years. Mullaney pointed out there are other high ticket items like the stadium and jail that will come into play as well.