by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
When Duval County voters approved the Better Jacksonville Plan’s extra half-cent sales tax in 2000, the language of the Plan called for a 30-year tax. However, then-mayor John Delaney projected the tax would actually last about 17 years and sometime in 2017, the tax would be repealed.
Like many of the Plan’s projects, the tax, too, is behind schedule.
“According to the latest model, Oct. 1, 2024 will be the end of the tax,” said Cal Ray, director of Administration and Finance for the City of Jacksonville. “By then, everything will be built and paid off. Of course, we are hoping to do better than the model.”
Ray said two things have combined to create a worse-than-expected sales tax cash flow since the inception of the tax: the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the resulting economic woes across the country.
“Sales tax collections are just starting to return to the original model, which is good news,” said Ray.
Other factors have also contributed to the change in the projection date for the end of the tax. The rising cost of materials has forced the City to go to the bond market sooner than expected. Also, according to Ray, the build-out of each project was accelerated.
“Originally, the plan was to have everything done by 2012, but that was accelerated to 2007,” said Ray, adding that the fiscal year 2003-04 was pretty good. “Last year, we took in $60,132,294 in sales tax which is a little ahead of budget. That’s about $900,000 ahead of the model. However, that doesn’t quite make up for 2002-03.”
Ray’s figures are based on the most recent sales tax data which actually goes back to last September. Several major events over the past several months — the Florida-Georgia game, the Gator Bowl, the Super Bowl and The Players Championship — brought tens of thousands of people to Jacksonville. And, while those visitors spent millions of dollars and generated millions of dollars in sales tax revenue, Ray said that windfall probably won’t be enough to offset the current shortfall and realign the 2017 projection.
“The Super Bowl and other events will help out this fiscal year, but that money doesn’t figure into the model,” explained Ray. “It will be interesting to see what this year does.”
According to Ray, the City has $648,255,000 million in outstanding bonds. Those bonds have been used to pay for the arena, ball park, equestrian center, main library, new branch libraries and branch renovations and road work. The new courthouse is also funded through these bonds. Ray said the City enjoys a AA rating from Wall Street bonding agencies, one notch below a best AAA rating.
“We have more bond capacity, but we won’t take that out until cash flows show that it’s time,” said Ray. “We will possibly sell more bonds in the last quarter of 2006.”