Jacksonville mayor to address concerns over budget as councilman files legislation to limit spending

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan is set to take questions about the city’s budget and the city’s credit rating later this morning.

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This comes after criticism from Jacksonville City Councilman Rory Diamond on what he calls “wild, liberal spending.” He has also filed a bill to limit the mayor’s spending ability.

Diamond wants to mayor’s transfer power over city funds from $500,000 to $100,000, not allow future budgets to spend more than 1% more of city revenue than is projected and prohibit city spending on DEI initiatives.

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The fight between Diamond and the mayor comes after Action News Jax told you last week that the city could end up more than $78 million over budget next year with the mayor wanting to use $47 million from the city’s reserve fund this year. That’s more than 5 times more than what the city has pulled from reserves over each of the 12 years on average.

However, the mayor did say earlier this week that the city isn’t taking from emergency reserves.

In a statement, Mayor Deegan argues in part, “Even with the dollars we are taking out of savings, we still have double the amount in that account that we targeted to save ... Now is not the time to stall our forward progress.”

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But, Jacksonville City Councilman Ron Salem argues that if spending isn’t reduced now, the money will quickly dry up down the road.

“My focus as the chairman of the finance committee is to reduce that $47 million down as far as I can, even below zero if necessary,” he said.

However, in a news release, Deegan announced that Fitch increased the city’s credit rating by 2 levels to AA+. She says that’s based on the proposed budget and the stadium renovation plan.

Mayor Deegan is set to address the city budget and new legislation at 11:30 a.m. You can expect Action News Jax to be there for updates.

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