JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan delivered her proposed budget to the Jacksonville City Council on Monday, calling it a lean plan that keeps public safety as the city’s biggest spending priority while setting aside nearly $674 million for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The proposal lists the city’s general fund at just over $2 billion, an increase of about 1.1% from the prior year, according to the city’s budget highlights. Deegan emphasized the city is not drawing from reserves for the second year in a row and said the growth is tied to commitments already made to first responders.
“The only reason for that rise is because we made a promise to do right by our first responders three years ago and we will continue to keep that promise,” Deegan said.
In the budget highlights, public safety accounts for 53% of the general fund — more than $1.07 billion. That includes $673,613,389 for JSO and $400,130,519 for Jacksonville Fire and Rescue.
“Public safety remains the most important responsibility we have,” she said.
After the budget was unveiled, Sheriff T.K. Waters told News4JAX the JSO figure was in line with what he expected, while stressing the department needs to be careful with taxpayer dollars.
“We want to be very careful how we spend the dollars,” Waters said.
Waters said much of the increase is tied to staffing costs.
“80% of this budget is for our salary and our benefits,” he said, noting some increases are driven by contractual obligations.
JSO also shared a breakdown of its spending with News4JAX that reflects that point: 80.04% of the sheriff’s budget goes to salaries and benefits, with smaller portions allocated to interlocal service charges (7.19%), professional and contractual services (6.6%), other operating supplies (5.29%) and insurance (0.88%).
Waters said the proposed funding is aimed at maintaining current operations and keeping up with technology needs — not a major staffing expansion.
“I didn’t ask for new officers… that stuff’s expensive,” Waters said. “Technology is constantly increasing and our ability to keep up is very, very important.”
The proposal now heads into weeks of council review. City Council Finance Chair Will Lahnen said the process begins with council auditors checking details and funding sources, before lawmakers start longer hearings.
Lahnen said he was encouraged by the public safety priorities in the mayor’s proposal.
“It looks to me like government is growing in the right areas,” he said, adding he was “glad to see public safety fully funded.”
But both Lahnen and Deegan pointed to uncertainty ahead, with a statewide property tax amendment headed to voters in November. Deegan warned that if revenue drops significantly, city spending choices could get tougher.
“Everything is going to be affected,” Deegan said. “When you have to cut a third of your budget, pretty much a third of everything is under scrutiny for going.”
Lahnen said that means the Finance Committee may need to prepare for a loss in revenue.
“There’s going to be some items that we’re going to say ‘Hey. Let’s come back and revisit this after November to see if it’s still feasible.’ If we’re going to start gearing up for what’s going to be a 200 million less the next year and then 100 million more or less in the following year.”
Budget hearings are expected to begin in August, with a final council vote set for the end of September.