by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Only a comment by Property Appraiser Jim Overton was cause for a group laugh Thursday as Mayor John Peyton met with three City Council members to begin preliminary discussions about the 2010-11 budget.
Things don’t look very good.
Peyton says the City is facing a hole in the current budget and he hopes that cuts can be found to end the year with a balanced budget.
It’s the future that’s an even more pressing issue and why the 35-minute meeting had a relatively somber mood. According to Peyton, the 2010-11 budget will likely have a $60 million deficit. That’s the bad news. The good news is Peyton is pretty sure it will be covered.
He said the garbage fee passed by Council Tuesday night will generate $20 million, an across-the-board pay cut of 3 percent will save another $20 million and his department heads are working to find the last $20 million. After that, things get dicey.
Unless property values, both residential and commercial, make a dramatic turn for the better, and no one in the room believed they will, the City is facing a deficit unlike anything seen in Jacksonville before.
Peyton said over the next five years that deficit could easily jump to $250 million. One solution would be to raise the property taxes by 5 millage points. But that’s a move citizens would vehemently protest and the Council would be reluctant to make.
“It’s a political impossibility to raise the millage rate that drastically,” said Peyton.
In looking ahead, Peyton said his department heads have done a good job of trimming their individual budgets through a combination of salary freezes and holding down expenditures.
“I could not be more proud of our department heads. They have given us as many options as possible,” he said. “There have been $43 million in cuts suggested and we are only looking for $20 million. That gives us a large bucket of options. One thing that gives me hope about the budget cycle is the courageous vote City Council made Tuesday. Now, we have $20 million in fees in the budget, which gives me hope this budget process can be a sane process.”
Webb said he and Peyton have been working with Sheriff John Rutherford to trim $10 million from the budget of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
“I am pleased with the substantial dialogue the mayor and I have had with the sheriff,” said Webb, who is in line to succeed Richard Clark as Council president.
Peyton said the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department has agreed to about $5 million in cuts and he hopes that the department will eventually agree to $10 million. Peyton added the JFRD union is the only City union in which negotiations are not at an impasse.
“It looks like City Council will be the final arbiter,” he said.
Council member Bill Bishop suggested cutting come of the budget of the Jacksonville Journey anti-crime program. Peyton said he would look at the programs within the Journey, but is adamantly opposed to wholesale cuts as long as the crime problem, particularly murder, in Jacksonville persists.
“You will not see me back off much,” said Peyton. “The single biggest problem in this city is that it’s been the murder capital of the state for 10 years. My position is that it’s worth funding.”
Overton pointed out that while the City is facing a deficit of $60 million this year, it’s much worse across the river.
“I will mention the School Board’s deficit is worse than yours,” said Overton. “I think their hole is about $120 million. Someone is going to have to come up with some pixie dust for that, too.”
Peyton said the numbers he presented Thursday are estimates based on an estimated millage rate.
“A lot of numbers continue to move,” he said. “We won’t have the final numbers from Overton until late May or early June. This is a work in progress.”
The future
Thursday, Mayor John Peyton gave a preliminary indication of the issues his office and City Council are facing in the 2010-11 budget. He also presented numbers that show the future is going to be even more difficult. The following numbers are estimates: