As her proposed $2.02 billion city operating budget nears examination by the full Jacksonville City Council, Mayor Donna Deegan went directly to residents Sept. 2 to defend her spending plans and criticize a push by a majority of the members to reduce the property tax rate.
Deegan appeared at the Mandarin Senior Citizen Center for the first of six town hall meetings scheduled over the next three weeks to discuss her budget, which is subject to a Council vote in September before the start of the city’s 2025-26 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
She took questions from attendees, defending her position on spending increases for such social needs as affordable housing and public health. Her series of town halls comes after the Council Finance Committee voted to reduce the millage rate by one-eighth of a mill, which would require about $13 million to be cut from Deegan’s proposed spending to meet a statutory requirement that the budget be balanced.
A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The city’s millage rate of 11.3169 has been unchanged since 2022.
“This is a small portion of the budget that makes a big impact,” Deegan said about the proposed spending for health care programs.
Deegan said health care spending, along with funding for education and social programs, makes up 12% of her operating budget. Programs for telehealth and JaxCare Connect that were cut from the budget accounted for less than $4 million combined.
“I’m not trying in any way to say that the city of Jacksonville can provide health care for (all) people,” Deegan said. “We want to show a way forward, a more compassionate and economically viable way for our city to survive as it grows by leaps.”
Council members pushing the tax cut have said they want to provide relief to taxpayers.
Deegan maintains that a tax cut wouldn’t provide meaningful savings for residents. Her office estimates that 45% of Jacksonville residents rent and likely wouldn’t be impacted by any tax break to their landlord. For those residents who do own their home, she said, the tax break would often amount to a little more than a dollar a month.
That comment appeared to be based on research from the mayor’s office showing that for a home with an assessed value of $200,000 and a $50,000 homestead exemption, the annual tax savings in the proposed cut would be $18.75. For owners of properties valued at higher amounts, the savings would be more.
Repeating a statement she has made frequently since the Finance Committee endorsed the millage rate reduction, Deegan said Council members pushing the tax cut were doing so based on political motives. She also said her concern about the millage cuts wasn’t based only on estimates for the next budget, but for the compounding effect the cut would have on future budgets.
Deegan said her motive in opposing the cut was not “trying to raise your taxes.”
“I’m simply saying to you, we already have a very low millage rate, and why are we trying to hurt our city by lowering it for a reason I think is purely political,” she said.
At Council, some of Deegan’s allies are working to reject the Finance Committee’s recommended budget cuts.
During a publicly noticed hearing Aug. 29, Council members Matt Carlucci, Michael Boylan, Ken Amaro and Ju’Coby Pittman said they’d seek to restore funding for the Northeast Florida Regional Council, several health care initiatives and affordable housing programs that lost proposed dollars.
Boylan has pushed for telehealth and JaxCare Connect programs. Amaro supported funding of the Northeast Florida Regional Council, a partnership between Duval County and surrounding counties in the area to promote economic development, planning and emergency preparedness, among other initiatives.
Any contingency of the Council hoping to bring funding back will have an uphill fight, however.
At least 10 Council members – a majority of the 19-member body – have publicly said they’ll support the millage rate reduction. The Finance Committee is set to pass the millage cut Sept. 3 and the full Council is expected to approve it Sept. 9.
Should that happen, the millage rate cannot be restored to its current level. Funding for the mayor’s projects would have to come from other city programs, or funding designated to the city’s reserves of the 2026-27 budget.
Deegan called on those at the town hall to advocate to all Council members, not just their district representatives, to maintain the millage rate and proposed spending. While residents may feel discouraged, she said, it was important they use their voice.
“I understand why today a lot of people are checking out because it’s hard to check in. But it’s incredibly important,” Deegan said. “If you want this city to work, you’ve got to show up.”
Deegan’s town halls are set to begin at 6 p.m. The town halls will be free and open to the public. The schedule is as follows: