Melissa Ross
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry says while he knows making the case to voters will be “a heavy lift,” he’s all in for selling his pension referendum plan to the city.
“This has to pass,” Curry told WJCT. “We have $2.7 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Right now we spend $260 million dollars a year in pension costs. Next year it’ll be $280 million, the year after that it’ll be $300 million. That’s about 30 percent of a billion dollar operating budget. What that means is, whatever taxpayers care about in this city, 30 percent of that goes to something that does absolutely nothing for them.”
After successfully convincing Tallahassee leadership to put his plan on Jacksonville’s August 30th primary ballot, Curry has staked much of the success of his first term on getting the pension plan approved. It would extend the Better Jacksonville Plan half-cent sales tax (which was scheduled to sunset) through 2060. However, unlike former Mayor John Delaney‘s successful campaign for the BJP, the current mayor has the unenviable task of persuading voters to approve a sales tax extension that will result in no visible projects or new buildings.
Curry, who has taken criticism in some quarters for his tough stance on solving the pension crisis before looking at other funding issues in the city, speaks about the situation with a sense of urgency.
“We are on the brink of a financial crisis. We are like the frog in the boiling water. The day of reckoning has arrived. If we don’t solve it now, we’ll have to cut more city services. The budget will continue to be eaten alive by these costs to the point where we won’t even have the money for public safety,” he said.
