City of Jacksonville comes up short in state budget, but city leaders scored some big policy wins

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The City of Jacksonville had a rough go at it in terms of getting its funding requests into the state budget.

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Less than 5 percent of the money requested made it in.

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Two projects in particular made up the bulk of those unfunded requests.

Money requests for developing Riverfront Plaza and the Shipyards made up just shy of 90 percent of the total dollars requested by the City of Jacksonville.

In total, the City of Jacksonville sought $70.5 million state lawmakers to fund seven projects.

In the end, it got a total of $3 million to fund three of those projects in the budget passed by the legislature Friday.

That’s just 4.2 percent of the money it wanted.

“Historically, cities don’t do as well as you might think they would,” said UNF political science professor Dr. Michael Binder.

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UNF political science professor Dr. Michael Binder explained large urban cities often come up short in state budgets compared to more rural parts of the state.

He also said some partisanship could be at play this year.

“We have a very Republican legislature. We have a big high-profile Democratic mayor,” said Binder.

In a statement the mayor’s office noted it decided to pull back on its high dollar asks like the Riverfront Plaza and Shipyards development after learning state leaders hoped to reduce the overall budget this year.

“We shifted our focus to smaller budget asks for critical infrastructure projects. We thank our local delegation for carrying these requests and to the full legislature for including them,” said a spokesperson with the mayor’s office.

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Meanwhile, JSO, which just hired a government relations coordinator to help with budget asks, managed to fare slightly better.

It only had two budget requests, one of which was funded.

In the end it secured just shy of 40 percent of the money it asked for.

“Now more than ever, it’s imperative for local leaders to play a role in the legislative process,” said Sheriff TK Waters in a statement sent to Action News Jax.

But Binder noted whether it’s JSO or the city on the budget request, any funding that comes into the city will benefit local taxpayers.

“Specifically dollars that maybe the Jacksonville taxpayer doesn’t have to pay in property taxes,” said Binder.

And of course, even the items that are currently in the budget aren’t safe yet.

READ: Jacksonville City Council approves Mayor Deegan’s $25M spending proposal

The Governor has already indicated he’ll be shaving down the $117 billion state budget with his veto pen.

“Just because you’ve made it this far, doesn’t mean you’ve made it across the line you’re ultimately gonna get a check over the summer,” said Binder,.

Outside of the budget JSO and the city both scored some legislative wins as well.

JSO got a bill across the finish line giving the sheriff the ability to move money around in the agency budget without having to get approval from city council.

“Jacksonville is fortunate to have legislators like Representative Duggan, Representative Baker, and Senator Yarborough who have been strong voices on the issues of public safety while in Tallahassee,” said Sheriff Waters in a statement provided to Action News Jax. “Through their efforts, they’ve shaped impactful policy while also helping to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in state law enforcement funding to Jacksonville.”

The mayor’s office also successfully lobbied against legislation that could have impacted how much JEA could contribute to the city budget and a provision in the tax package that could have put the city’s pension funding at risk.

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“Our team also saw significant policy successes with Jacksonville held harmless in major tax and public utility bills,” said a spokesperson for the mayor’s office in an emailed statement.

HERE’S A FULL BREAK DOWN OF THE BUDGET REQUESTS AND WHAT THE CITY RECEIVED:

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What the city requested Money for projects requested by the City of Jacksonville. (WJAX)

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