A.G. Gancarski
At 4 p.m. Monday the second of three state Senate committees (Finance and Tax) will consider the “discretionary sales surtax” bill that Jacksonville’s financial future has become predicated upon.
Passage of the bill to extend the Better Jacksonville Plan’s half-cent sales tax as far out as 2060 (from a current sunset date of 2030), would confer benefits on Lenny Curry and City Council.
With an unfunded pension liability estimated at $2.6 billion, Jacksonville’s operating budget is committed increasingly toward paying off pension obligations.
The bill’s passage would authorize a Duval County referendum to pass an extension. Jacksonville leaders expect a protracted sales job of this referendum to the notoriously anti-tax Duval electorate.
The hope is to borrow against the anticipated revenue to offer immediate relief. Without it, it has been said, a quarter-century of the austerity that has characterized Jacksonville budgets in recent years awaits with cuts in public safety, infrastructure, and quality-of-life allocations.
Headed into the committee meeting, a protracted sales job has already been served up to some of its members via private January meetings with Curry, including Republican members Anitere Flores and Wilton Simpson, as well as Democratic Vice Chairman Joseph Abruzzo.
The committee meeting starts 4 p.m. Monday.
