Mayor Lenny Curry has a Plan A for paying down $2.7 billion in pension liabilities, a proposal that’s barreling its way through the Legislature.
State lawmakers are the first of several dominos needed to fall to move on.
If one of those dominos weren’t to fall?
Curry has a Plan B and a Plan C, he told a House committee. But as much as extending the half-cent sales tax for up to 30 years is the best of “no good choices,” the backup plan is worse.
“It is not pretty,” he told State Affairs Committee members Wednesday.
No one will want to see that road, he said, answering a question from Rep. Dwayne Taylor, the committee’s ranking Democrat.
The group was the toughest to date for reviewing Plan A. The hour-long discussion began with Rep. Travis Cummings answering a bevy of questions about the bill for which he’s the lead sponsor.
It was then Curry’s turn to step to podium to sell the plan at the final House stop before a possible floor vote.
“The situation is dire in my city,” he began.
Curry said he was committed early in his term to solving the issue that is sapping city dollars that could be used for other priorities.
Of the city’s $1 billion budget, Curry said in a few years close to $300 million would be drained by pension payments without a solution.
Those dollars could be used for infrastructure or public safety, the latter Curry framed by telling the committee about the murder of 22-month old Aiden McClendon.
The toddler has put a visible face on the spate of violent crime the city has already had this year.
Curry framed such violence as a direct result of his inability to fund public safety.
Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, agreed with him about prioritizing public safety, sharing his own story of how police and firefighters helped save one of his daughters after a car accident. A second daughter died in the accident.
“I love this bill,” said Slosberg.
Not everyone was on board.
Taylor couldn’t get there. He had sat on public safety pension boards in the past and had “major, major” concerns with the approach, saying tax funding would replace, not supplement, paying off liabilities.
“Sort of like the shell game you play with the Florida Lottery,” he said, referring to funding replacing instead of enhancing education dollars.
Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, likewise couldn’t support the plan. He said he thought more negotiating on the benefits side of the equation was needed and “shouldn’t only be on the backs of taxpayers.”
Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, though, said he was shocked by some of the debate.
He saw legislators telling Jacksonville what they’d like the city to do, but “I don’t think that’s our role.”
Instead, the role was to pass or not pass the opportunity for Jacksonville to make its own decision on the issue.
“I don’t find it that difficult,” he said.
For now, the dominos for Plan A continue to fall. Taylor and Bileca were the only two of the 18 members to vote against the plan, which now heads to the House floor for a vote.
It still has one Senate committee to go before a possible Senate floor vote, followed by heading to the desk of Gov. Rick Scott.
And until that changes, Plan B and Plan C remain off the table — there’s no reason to even share them, Curry said.
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