Jacksonville Mayor set to unveil proposed city budget as activists call to reduce police funding

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville’s Mayor is set to present his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Wednesday at 10 a.m.

In a tweet, Mayor Lenny Curry said his budget proposal includes investing over $100 million in Northwest Jacksonville where he said, “promises have been broken for decades.”

The Jacksonville Community Action Committee unveiled its “people’s budget” Tuesday night.

Michael Sampson said the group is demanding the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office share of the budget be reduced to around 20%. “We are calling it a reallocation of funding,” Sampson said. “We are not calling for no JSO.”

JSO consumed roughly 40% of the city’s budget for FY 2019-2020 when it received $481,594,597. For FY 2018-2019, the City of Jacksonville approved $439,129,748 for JSO.

Sampson said JSO is requesting an additional $6.1 million increase to its existing budget this next fiscal year, which he said is far too much. “We don’t think that simply adding more cops and giving JSO a larger portion of our city’s taxpayer dollars is going to keep us safe,” Sampson said.

Sampson said the “people’s budget” prioritizes communities and people. The JCAC’s proposal is to take taxpayer dollars from the sheriff’s office and reinvest that money elsewhere. “You’ll be able to invest in so many other areas like public works, like neighborhood infrastructure, like addressing food insecurity, mental health, homelessness,” Sampson said.

Here’s how the JCAC’s “people’s budget” breaks down:

• Redirect $40 million to the Office of Economic Development, specifically for the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund, to help fund new African American small businesses in underdeveloped areas.
• Reallocate $25 million to address food insecurity through a food desert elimination program.
• A $50.5 million increase for parks and recreation services.
• Invest an additional $23 million dollars into the neighborhood and community infrastructure.
• Spend $15.5 million on the creation of brand-new homeless shelters in order to reduce the massive homelessness in the city. Funds would also be used to build affordable family housing.
• $15 million dollar increase for the division of mental health services to improve access to quality mental health service for the people of Jacksonville.
• Provide public libraries with a $20 million increase in funding.
• A $20 million increase in city funding to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) for revolutionizing and expanding public transportation.
• An additional $20 million to fund the Kids Hope Alliance.

Cox Media Group