City Council member Jim Love said Tuesday that the City administration is seeking ways to restore Council’s proposed $2.1 million cut to the Jacksonville Public Library budget.
Love said there could be a plan soon. The Council will vote Sept. 27 on the 2011-12 City budget.
Love said such a plan would not raise taxes.
Chris Hand, chief of staff for Mayor Alvin Brown, said this morning that the mayor submitted a budget that did not increase taxes or fees.
“Library funding was a part of that budget and we stand by the proposal we made then,” he said. Hand did not elaborate on any additional plans.
Council member John Crescimbeni unsuccessfully sought to restore library funding during last week’s Council Finance Committee meeting.
He said Tuesday he is still seeking ways to restore the funding and could make a proposal on the Council floor at the Sept. 27 meeting.
Brown’s budget proposed a $900,000 reduction in library funding, while the Council Finance Committee increased that cut to $2.1 million.
Library supporters turned out to oppose the cut at Tuesday’s Council meeting. Library officials said the budget cuts will force the closure of all branches Mondays and also reduce the remaining operating hours.
“This year, the situation is much more devastating,” said Judy Kline, president of Friends of the Murray Hill Library, saying previous years’ cuts were not as severe.
Kline was one of many who advocated restoring library funding levels proposed in Brown’s budget.
Such a cut, she said, could be managed but not the additional $2.1 million. The additional cuts “are totally excessive,” she said.
“That is the last place we should be cutting the budget,” she said, echoing other speakers who said children and students rely on libraries to help with homework and to provide Internet access. They also said adults use libraries for Internet job searches.
Libraries were not the only topic of funding.
Sheriff John Rutherford continued to make his case to Council members to restore funding to his office, including $4.4 million he said was mistakenly taken out twice.
The Council Finance Committee cut the JSO budget by $8.8 million over the course of several hearings.
The first $4.4 was to defund officers budgeted with a yet-to-be-awarded grant and to absorb increases in the general employees’ pension plan.
The second $4.4 million was cut to offset an unbalanced budget that originally anticipated a 2 percent salary reduction.
Rutherford said he understood the JSO needed to “share in the pain” of budget cuts, but that such cuts would affect public safety in the form of laying off 182 police and civilian positions.
A fact sheet he made available shows three separate sets of budget cuts that would lead to 136 police positions, 40 civilian positions, five corrections positions and a medical position being unfunded or eliminated.
Of the cuts, $2.2 million was put into a contingency account for later use by the office, which Rutherford said should “just be put back in my budget.”
Rutherford said he would continue to lobby Council members over the next two weeks regarding the budgetary issues.
Several members of the public also sought to have full funding restored for the Jacksonville Equestrian Center.
In budget hearings, Finance members slashed its budget in half to cover the first six months of operation in the new fiscal year.
A speaker called it a “gem for Jacksonville” that attracts people from around the country who might not otherwise visit the area. Several sought to have a new management company put in charge of the facility.
“It can make money,” said another public speaker.
After a lengthy public hearing involving dozens of speakers, Council tentatively approved the budget in a unanimous vote, which included all the cuts.
It also tentatively approved the millage rates for the general service district, the Beaches and Baldwin.
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