A.G. Gancarski
For the first time perhaps ever, an initiative of former RPOF chair and current Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is being packaged as “progressive.”
A “Yes for Jacksonville” mailer bills County Referendum 1, which would extend a current half-cent sales tax devoted to infrastructure from 2030 to as far out as 2060 to deal with the current unfunded pension liability, as the “progressive solution to move Jacksonville forward.”
Critics of the referendum have noted the sales tax by its very nature is regressive, as part of a group of other criticisms, including that the referendum unfairly taxes generations to come — who had no role in what Curry calls the “bad decisions of the past” — that created the $2.85 billion liability.
Democrats, including one recent candidate for office, question the choice of the word “progressive,” saying that’s a word more preferred by Bernie Sanders supporters than those of Hillary Clinton.
On the flip side of the mailer: former mayor and current City Councilman Tommy Hazouri, an elected Democrat who was an avatar of progressive values during the campaign, saying he “strongly support[s]” CR 1.
The flyer also offers a series of “fact” statements to counter the opposition’s “myth[s].”
“It only takes a half cent for our city to have a secure financial future, and it won’t take effect until the year 2030,” the mailer asserts.
“In order to solve the pension crisis, our city employees will contribute up to 20 percent more to their pensions,” the mailer continues, billing that as a “shared-sacrifice approach.”
Critics have noted that the “new tax” protects the “status quo” of “solid gold” pensions that see an average retired first responder collecting $4 million and the total liability pushed up to $652 million per annum by FY 2037.
3 comments
John S Winkler
August 18, 2016 at 12:23 pm
One made-up ‘myth’ is “there’s no reason to fix anything” — no, it needs reform, and http://www.nojaxtax.com and http://www.just-vote-no.com explain how.
M.D. Clements
August 18, 2016 at 6:33 pm
Right Mr. Winkler. Of course your version of reform is always centered on the backs of the same public safety and other city employees who have never missed their payments. Who’ve paid hundreds of thousands of their dollars into those pensions while you and those of your ilk enjoyed the benefits of their service on the cheap, paying next to nothing historically.
Chewy
August 19, 2016 at 12:51 pm
Mr Winkler the reality and harsh reality is you the taxpayer made promises and deferred responsibility on benefits that are going to have to be paid. I am retired receiving that pension you hate and yes, you the taxpayer have an obligation to honor it, in your case since honor is not to be found, shall we say constitutionally owed. The same goes with thousands of other servant who battled evil so you can advocate theft. Honestly you are going to get the reform you desire as this closes the three existing plans and the future employees can deside if risking life and limb is worth what you think is fair. I have followed your lies of how this causes the debt to explode. By closing the plans, as the liability is 2.5 billion, however that is what is needed to fully fund those benefits. There will be no further mouths to feed added so said liability will remain the same. Active employee contribution go to 10% so there will be additional monies added while the 1.3 billion invested should continue to earn a return that will deduct from the total. Let’s be honest here, 26 years ago when I took a pay cut to enter public service, it wasn’t the wages, power, job or the occasional free drink that I found attractive, it was what I enjoy right now, the pension and without it I am sure many would not have made the sacrifice. You are a person who enjoys judicial process, so as a taxpayer, I expect my government to challenge your shenanigans, like the previous opinion. All things equal, you are not the only tax paying citizen with an opinion, however the elected representatives negotiated what I appreciate so you had your voice years ago and the same official who made some bad decisions represented you as part of the community. To anyone who would follow you, let me say this, financially the city is not broke but cash strapped with much of its worth held is real estate, many of those assets are non-performing. Voting down this referendum does nothing to solve that with a liability growing on the general fund to cover the costs. So even if I buy your self serving arguments about the problem not being solve, without this the problem grows without a funding source. The reality is services will suffer and become more difficult to fulfill; because the liability does not go away, the funds do not close and it gets further from your utopia where you believe people want to serve you for free. The citizens should be concerned already with the attrition rate and retirement rate as many seek the security from FRS over 8 years of being told they are gonna take your benefits…. In closing you are welcome for the best years of my life spent serving our community with pride and dignity. All those Christmases and birthdays spent protecting and serving were honorable and finally the wear and tear to my body and mind dealing with some of the most evil that guys like you can’t even imagine, we’re done diligently.
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