Responding to concerns from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration that it had watered down the proposed community benefits agreement between the city and team, a City Council special committee held an extra session Sept. 6 to continue shaping the $150 million taxpayer-funded portion of the deal.
Coming out of what was supposed to be its final meeting on Aug. 26, the Special Committee on the Community Benefits Agreement had adopted several amendments to the version of the deal negotiated by the team and Deegan’s office.
The community benefits agreement is a companion to the $1.4 billion deal between the city and team to turn EverBank Stadium into the Jaguars’ “Stadium of the Future.” The deal will need the approval of NFL owners.
That original version included $30 million in city funding for the Eastside neighborhood north of EverBank Stadium over three years, $50 million in benefits countywide, $56 million for development of riverfront parks and the stadium-adjacent flex field, and $1 million in discretionary spending among the 14 Council districts.
The 30-year deal included equal contributions of $150 million from the city and Jaguars, with the portions for the Eastside and the entire county going toward workforce development, homelessness services and affordable housing.
The special committee’s amended version of the agreement increased the Eastside funding to $40 million but spread it over seven years. The extra $10 million for the Eastside was subtracted from the countywide portion, and the remaining $40 million of the countywide money was spread over 33 years.
Jaguars' concerns
Jacksonville attorney Paul Harden, a lobbyist for the Jaguars, said the team believed the 33-year period “may be a little long and dilute the impact” of the funding. Mike Weinstein, Deegan’s lead negotiator on the agreement, warned the committee of “backtracking” on an intent of the negotiations to frontload the city’s contributions into the early years of the agreement to kickstart the benefits.
Committee member Ken Amaro said he understood the concern and sought to compact the countywide portion into 10 years. Prompting laughter among his colleagues, he quoted a lyric by a person he described as a “contemporary philosopher,” rapper and singer Post Malone.
“Post Malone says give me something I can feel. Something real,” he said, adding that extending the funding over 33 years would not make an appreciable difference.
The committee approved an amended version of his motion that would pay the funding over 15 years at a minimum of $2.5 million annually.
Member Will Lahnen, who had suggested the 33-year period, voted against reducing it.
“I don’t know what’s changed since we approved my amendment in the last meeting and wrapped this thing up,” he said.
Harden said the team also sought a “guardrail” to ensure that the city’s contribution was new funding and not money that was already being directed to the needs outlined in the agreement. That concern came from the committee counting $5.99 million that is expected to be included in the 2024-25 budget toward the city’s contribution.
The committee voted not to count any funding in the 2024-25 budget beyond the $5.99 million as part of the city’s contribution.
In a final amendment, the committee agreed to allow funding to go toward both workforce housing and affordable housing. Under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definition, affordable housing applies to households making 30% to 80% of area median income. Workforce housing is for households making 81% to 120% of area median income.
What’s next
Barring another extra meeting by the special committee, the amended agreement will go before the full City Council on Sept. 10.
The agreement requires approval by the NFL owners group. The Jaguars are hoping to take an agreed-upon version to the group during its annual meeting in October.
The special committee’s changes were prompted by concerns among some committee members that the agreement would overstretch the budget. In addition to the stadium deal, to which the city has committed $775 million, the city is facing big-ticket expenditures on raises for police and firefighters, incentives for Downtown revitalization projects and economic development projects across the city, and eventually a new jail with a cost estimated at $1 billion-plus.
Meanwhile, the city’s tax revenues came in less than projected this year and are not expected to rise in coming years, prompting projections from Council auditors of budget deficits of up to $105 million over the next four years.
Jaguars OK with safeguard
Elsewhere in the hearing, Harden said the team was comfortable with an amendment that allows the city to withhold funding in lean years.
That safeguard, recommended by committee member Nick Howland, establishes a formula based on the inflation rate or Consumer Price Index to determine whether the city can make its payments without dipping into reserves or reducing funding for basic services.
The amendment allows the city to pause its contribution without defaulting on the agreement and receive an extra year on the back end of the deal to make up for the dropped payment.
Also, after the Council Finance Committee voted to cut $20 million in funding for development of Riverfront Plaza, Shipyards West Park and Metropolitan Park, Deegan’s chief of staff, Darnell Smith, said the parks remained adequately funded and would be completed in a timely manner. Harden called the park development the Jaguars’ top concern.
When the full Council approved the stadium deal, it pulled the $56 million in park funding from the community benefits agreement and approved that funding as a stand-alone.