JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Rising prices are squeezing household budgets across Jacksonville, and for some residents, keeping up with the utility bill has become one more financial burden they can’t afford to ignore.
Two Jacksonville City Council members are now looking at ways the city could step in to help.
Ray Pringle, a retired Jacksonville resident living on a fixed income, said the situation keeps getting harder.
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“My wife and I are retired and living off of a fixed income — it’s progressively getting worse,” Pringle said.
Jason Goodrich also went public with his frustration, posting on social media and filing a petition against JEA that has already collected more than 5,000 signatures. He said the bills his family has been receiving are far beyond what he expected.
“My mother received a $500 bill, and when she came to me, they said we need to get this bill paid. I’m thinking 100, maybe 200, but when I say 500, I’m like, yeah, no,” Goodrich said.
Councilmembers Reggie Gaffney Jr. and Jimmy Peluso are asking what the city can do to help families facing those kinds of bills.
“It’s very upsetting; it’s disturbing. It moves me because you have everyday individuals who have to make a priority — whether they pay their rent, whether they pay their gas, food — they have to make tough decisions,” Gaffney said.
Big questions remain, including who would qualify for assistance, how much help a household could receive, where the funding would come from, and how quickly relief could reach families.
Gaffney said those details are not yet finalized.
“Right now we’re not sure,” he said. “We’re going to have a roundtable dialogue.”
He added that identifying revenue sources is a critical next step. “I’m not sure if legislation will come out of this. We’ve got to identify our revenue sources — what is JEA doing, we’ve got to figure out who could hold the money,” Gaffney said.
The roundtable discussion is scheduled for Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Don Davis Room at City Hall.
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