Jacksonville City Council member Bill Gulliford put the wheels in motion Tuesday for a referendum asking voters to approve a half-cent sales tax to reduce the city’s pension debt.
Gulliford introduced the legislation with the aim of having Jacksonville voters decide the matter in the May 19 general election.
The need for pension reform is dire and needs an abrupt resolution, Gulliford said.
“This will frame a community debate by virtue of the required referendum,” Gulliford said. “If there are other options, I’d like to hear them. If not, folks, we need to take action. Our future depends on it.”
He said the only other viable option for cutting into the city’s massive public employees’ unfunded pension plan liabilities is a property tax increase.
“Doing nothing is not an option,” he said. “There has been a lot of talk, but, thus far, no action on funding. And the hole gets deeper as each day passes, sapping the strength from future budgets.”
A half-cent sales tax would raise an estimated $60 million annually. The city’s mounting pension liabilities amount to about $1.62 billion from the public employees’ plan and nearly $1 billion from the general employees’ plan.
Gulliford says tackling the pension debt with a sales tax hike is more equitable than a property tax increase or having JEA ratepayers help take on the liability, as proposed by Mayor Alvin Brown.
“The JEA option is questionable,” Gulliford said.
For a sales tax referendum to be presented to voters, the Legislature would first have to agree to put it on the ballot. While Gulliford says he thinks it is likely voters would approve the measure, state Rep. Janet Adkins, the Duval County Legislative Delegation chair, says obtaining Tallahassee approval for pension-related legislation would be an unlikely political hurdle to overcome.
A public hearing on Gulliford’s proposal is slated for Feb. 24. Although no other council members spoke on the measure, council member John Crescimbeni has said he supports having voters decide whether to pay down the pension deficit with a half-cent sales tax.
JEA is considering a Brown-backed proposal to borrow $120 million to help reduce the pension fund liability in exchange for establishing a JEA employee retirement plan separate from the city, among other concessions.
In another matter, the Downtown Investment Authority’s redevelopment plan was passed 16-1, with Matt Schellenberg in opposition after some council members attempted to delay the decision due to concerns about Friends of Hemming Park’s fundraising.
The city’s $1 million annual contract for the nonprofit Friends organization to manage Hemming specifies minimum revenue requirements.
Schellenberg and some of his colleagues said Tuesday they are concerned that, according to a story by the Daily Record, the organization claimed $50,000 in grants that were approved before receiving the park management contract.
But the council voted 12-5 to reject tabling the matter.
“We look forward to getting directly into the implementation of the plan, and working hard for all the downtown stakeholders for a more improved, vibrant downtown Jacksonville,” Downtown Investment Authority CEO Aundra Wallace said after the meeting.
The plan, which supersedes a 2000 redevelopment roadmap, includes updated projects and data, and enables the authority to approve incentives. Its major long-term initiatives include stimulating residential development Downtown and productively using the Shipyards property.
In a report to the City Council that was not on the agenda and did not involve a vote, council members learned that temporary electrical power may be restored in as early as 10 days at Riverwalk Townhomes at the Plaza. Electricity to the 20 townhomes has been shut off since the Feb. 1 collapse of a section of Coastline Drive at Liberty Street.
Some council members lambasted city public works and JEA officials, saying they are not moving quickly enough to restore electricity to the townhomes as it is being determined who is responsible for paying for repairs.
“I don’t really sense any urgency from anybody, and that’s what really concerns me,” Crescimbeni said. “And that kind of leads me to conclude that this is going to turn into a big mess.”
The townhomes’ homeowners’ association is asking the city to pay for the cost of repairing their property, and to declare the residences to be uninhabitable so their insurance carriers will finance their temporary lodging arrangements.
Also, council member Robin Lumb said that because there is no air-conditioning in the residences, the homeowners’ costs may rise because wooden flooring is warping.
If taxpayers are liable — an issue that is being investigated by the city’s attorneys — the bill could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’s a pay-me-now or pay-me-later situation,” Lumb said.
Public Works Director Jim Robinson said the homeowners’ association needs to install equipment, which has been ordered, before electricity can be restored.