A.G. Gancarski
For those who might wonder whether former Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney supports the Lenny Curry administration bid to devote the half-cent sales tax to defray the unfunded pension liability, wonder no more.
“I support it 100 percent,” Delaney told FloridaPolitics.com on Wednesday evening.
Delaney has talked with members of the Duval Legislative Delegation, and will do whatever Curry wants to help it along.
This “replacement tax,” Delaney said, “solves a lot of problems.”
While Delaney said it’s an extension of the current Better Jacksonville Plan “infrastructure tax,” “in the sense that there’s no increased tax burden” it is nonetheless a “completely new tax.”
“No later than 2030,” Delaney said, “the Better Jacksonville Plan tax will be dead as a door nail.”
The sales tax is essential, “paying for accumulated debt,” and is one of two viable options … the other being property tax.
Although City Council can push that up to 20 mills, that would be a funding source subject to the year to year whims of Council.
In other words, not a dedicated source.
“Right now, there’s no ability to pass a sales tax for pension,” said Delaney.
The bills being introduced in Tallahassee by Sen. Rob Bradley and Rep. Travis Cummings would obviously change that.
The choice the Curry administration has made to pass this via a supermajority (13 of 19 Council votes) is one that Delaney supports also.
The former mayor sees it as a benefit of “good communications and lobbying with Council,” which is the “opposite of what they experienced with the Alvin Brown administration … getting consensus very quickly.”
