Unfunded pension costs are 'eating our budget alive,' Jacksonville mayor says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry presented his 2016-17 budget proposal Monday morning to city council.

At just over $1 billion, Curry said it’s a no-frills budget focused on critical needs because of the city’s unfunded pension costs.

“Our unfunded pension costs are eating our budget alive,” said Curry.

Curry said 27 percent of his proposed budget would go to pension costs. That’s 27 cents of every taxpayer dollar spent.

He used the presentation at city hall as a push for voters to support his pension reform in next month’s referendum.

Niki Brunson, who lives in Springfield, said she wanted to hear about the city’s financial issues straight from the source.

“I wanted to kind of change that momentum and see if I can spark other people to come down and see for yourself, instead of taking somebody else’s word,” said Brunson.

Curry said the city’s pension costs forced him to say no to funding multiple downtown development projects, additional fire stations, 120 additional fire personnel, more code enforcement officers to fight blight and more.

The proposed budget includes no pay raises for any city employees.

He said if voters support his pension reform referendum next month, it would free up $3.5 million he put in reserves as a back-up plan.

Approval of the referendum would mean extending the city’s half-cent sales tax for another 30 years beyond 2030.

Brunson said she’s still skeptical.

“There are a lot of questions as to whether or not referendum one will even do what it’s supposed to do long term,” said Brunson.

“Almost 30 percent of our budget is going to pension costs, and any taxpayer that doesn’t think they’re funding it – they’re funding it with tax dollars that are paying for pensions vs. their dollars that should be going to services we provide for them,” said Curry.

Despite the tight squeeze caused by the city’s pension costs, Curry proposed adding dozens of new officers and a body camera pilot program for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

“Public safety is one place that we should not be doing more with less,” said Curry.

Sheriff Mike Williams told Action News Jax that you can expect to see hundreds of body cameras on the streets starting this coming spring.

“We want to make sure we do that right. It would be catastrophic for us to roll this program out and have to pull it back. It’s not going to happen here,” said Williams.

Williams said JSO will test up to 300 cameras from multiple vendors next year.

Officers who volunteer will test out the cameras for four-to-six months, and then weigh in on JSO’s body camera policy.

Williams said the plan is to fund putting a body camera on every JSO officer in the next budget.

“What you’re going to get is, 99.9 percent of the time, a lot of good police officers doing a lot of great work. And that other percentage, we need to see anyway, so we can take action,” said Williams.

The mayor’s proposed budget also calls for 40 new police officers and 40 new community service officers.

“It impacts a lot of areas: response time and giving officers more time to be down in neighborhoods building relationships on that neighborhood level,” said Williams.

Curry also added 40 police officers and 40 community service officers in his last budget. He said those additional officers and overtime have helped lead to a 40 percent decrease in non-domestic violence shootings since January.

Curry’s budget proposal does not include the 120 more fire personnel that JFRD requested.

“We’ve got to focus on the trends and making sure that violent crime is reduced,” said Curry.

Curry’s proposed budget includes $14 million for police vehicles, and $7.5 million for fire vehicles.

It also includes a buildout for Fire Station 56, because the city has a $1.5 million federal grant that will expire next year if it’s not used.

Curry also proposed funding to replace a mosquito control helicopter to combat insect-borne diseases like Zika. He said Jacksonville’s current insect control helicopters are in such disrepair that they cannot be insured.

Curry announced he will introduce separate legislation this week to propose $15 million of septic tank phase-out projects. He said cash for those projects is available because of negotiations between his team and JEA. He said the first communities that will benefit from these projects are in Northwest Jacksonville.

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