A half-cent sales tax slated for fire and rescue facilities but meant for pension costs would need some political maneuvering to have its end goal of helping pay down the city’s $1.7 billion in unfunded liability.
It would mean a 1.5-mill property tax increase next year while voters decided, maybe in November, whether they wanted the sales tax. If they passed it, that property tax level would be lowered the next year, as is the sales tax legislation.
Unless the rules changed, that is.
City Council members are asking legislators to consider adding language to the fire and rescue facilities tax legislation that would allow it to be used for pension costs. Doing so would mean council wouldn’t have to adjust the millage rate at all to deal with possible funding of pension costs.
“It would be great if that would just be exempted,” council President Bill Gulliford said.
He was in Tallahassee last week to talk with legislators about that and other Jacksonville issues. He then met Tuesday with council member Greg Anderson.
Anderson went to Tallahassee on Thursday and is there today as part of the banking industry, but said he would meet with legislators and economic development officials while there. He said he wanted to do “anything to help the pension issue.”
“It would be a big help,” Anderson said of the possible exemption.
The sales tax initiative would still go before voters, though, a vote would come after council is done with next year’s budget. If council didn’t raise the rate and voters denied the sales tax, it could mean playing catch-up the next year, a “very, very real possibility,” Gulliford said Friday.
“We can run, but we can’t hide from this thing,” he said. “No one wants to take the bitter pill, but the reality is we are going to have to take a bitter pill.”
Regardless, Gulliford said the mayor’s budget should reflect a higher pension contribution this year. Last year, that was $148 million and Gulliford estimates it could jump another $20 million this year.
The Jacksonville Retirement Reform Task Force addressed the surtax possibility in a draft of recommendations last week.
It recommends raising revenue to more quickly pay down the unfunded liability, but says a property tax “is not as good a solution” because a sales tax is “broader” and would affect everyone in Duval County who purchases goods and services. Both taxes would raise about $68 million.
Gulliford said Tuesday during his meeting with Anderson that given the two options, he prefers a sales tax and personally is “really, really opposed” to using ad valorem taxes to fund it. Anderson later said that is his preference if given the two choices.
Mayor Alvin Brown said he doesn’t support a tax increase of any kind.
The task force is scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday as it wraps up its work. On its final day, it will present the full recommendations to Brown and council.
@writerchapman
(904) 356-2466