JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the second year in a row, Mayor John Peyton will propose a city budget that includes what he knows will be controversial, even unpopular: a tax hike for property owners and a pay cut for employees.
Peyton will formally propose the "revenue neutral" budget of nearly $1 billion at a special City Council meeting Wednesday morning. With the mayor entering the final year of his second term, this will be his last budget.
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City officials said that falling property values forced the mayor to proposed a 9 percent property tax increase to keep city revenues at the same level. While the increase could cost the owner of an average home an additional $80 per year in taxes, if that property was reappraised at a lower value, that could neutralize the rate increase.
Just the suggestion of a tax increase is almost guaranteed to get a strong reaction.
"That's highway robbery," resident Jewel Peterson said. "That is not nice. We can just barely make enough."
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The other constituency that won't be happy with the proposed budget are city employees who are being asked to take a 3 percent pay cut. The most outspoken of that plans is the head of the police union.
"Were they need to start with the pay cuts is his own appointed people," said FOP president Nelson Cuba. "Let's start with leadership. He can do that. Those people have no union or contract, so he can say, 'You will be taking a 3 percent pay cut -- or 10 -- whatever he wants to do. They have not done that, and they expect us to do that."
Management of the firefighters' union has already come to terms with the city on a contract that doesn't cut their pay, but will cut benefits and overtime. Rank-and-file has yet to vote on that contract.
On the eve of his budget speech, Peyton said he doesn't want the non-union members to take the brunt of the cuts.
"The last thing I am going to do is punish the non-union work force. We need to grow them and not punish them," Peyton told Channel 4's Jim Piggott. "We are clearly on a negotiating front with the unions on collective bargaining. There are some unknowns. We are confident we can reign in cost over time, and we are building those into the budget."
Last year after much debate, City Council did agree to a employee pay cut and a property tax increase to balance the budget -- but the unions representing city workers never agreed to the salary cuts. That left the city short of money and forced layoffs, cuts in library hours and other reductions over the final few months of the year.
"As you can see, we made it though this year without the sky falling. No pay cuts were taken by anybody," Cuba said.
The City Council has to approve the budget and any corresponding pay reduction and tax increase. While Peyton will not face reelection, many councilmen will, so they will likely spend the rest of the summer scrutinizing the budget looking for ways to minimize or avoid some of the pain.
While most homeowners' immediate reaction to a tax hike will likely be negative, some are more understanding of Peyton's position, and would rather pay more than see services cut.
"You are not going to have these services if you don't pay for them," Philip May said. "We just got to pony up. If we are going to have the facilities, we need we have to pay for it. We can't get by on the cheap."
Peyton asked the public to keep the tax rate in perspective, saying that Jacksonville will still have the lowest taxes of any major city in Florida, and because the rate dropped during his first years in office, the tax rate when he leaves office will still be lower than it was when he took office in 2003.