JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new Florida DOGE report identified as much as $63 million of spending it deemed \u201cexcessive\u201d here in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
It also outlined some possible ways for state and local lawmakers to chop down local budgets. <\/p>\n
The most dramatic of those recommendations would involve dissolving or consolidating some of Florida\u2019s 411 cities.<\/p>\n
In Duval, that could theoretically mean the City of Jacksonville absorbing the cities of Neptune, Atlantic and Jacksonville Beach along with the town of Baldwin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe less City of Jacksonville there is the better off everyone will be,\u201d Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13) said.<\/p>\n
Diamond, who represents the beaches, argued he would fight tooth and nail against any effort to bring the cities he represents under the full control of Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe reason why the beaches are so awesome is cause we\u2019re not in Jacksonville. We\u2019re gonna stay out here. If anything, we\u2019ll get our own county,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n Councilmember Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7) added any such effort would likely spark public outcry, as the independence of the beach communities was a major compromise that had to be made to consolidate the City of Jacksonville and Duval County in the 1960\u2019s. <\/p>\n \u201cThat sounds like something a crazy person in Tallahassee would think up,\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n The report also recommends capping salaries of elected and non-elected city officials and employees.<\/p>\n That proposal is something Duval DOGE Chair Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large) does support.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Finance Committee has been very aggressive on the mayor\u2019s office and her salaries. I think many of those people are way over paid,\u201d Salem said.<\/p>\n But Peluso argued that could make the city\u2019s workforce less competitive, especially if the council were to follow through on the report\u2019s recommendation for a multi-year wage freeze for all government employees.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s so inappropriate and it\u2019s also taking away a tool that, again, local governments should have,\u201d Peluso said. \u201dThis is more of Tallahassee trying to tell us what to do with our money.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement sent to Action News Jax, the mayor\u2019s office didn\u2019t directly address the report\u2019s recommendations, but did highlight some of what the city is already doing to make government more efficient.<\/p>\n Those efforts include levering automation and AI, process improvements and limits on staff growth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results speak for themselves: reading scores are up, infrastructure projects are up, roads resurfaced are up, free park attendance is up, families on health insurance are up, veterans getting jobs are up, population growth is up. And our property tax rate remains the lowest of any big city in Florida, while the city\u2019s budget carries an A+ bond rating,\u201d a spokesperson with the mayor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new Florida DOGE report identified as much as $63 million of spending it deemed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,347,66941,66940,28,3935,348,116,66939,351,118,117,66942,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-136941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-cbs47","tag-doge-recommendations-florida","tag-doge-report-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-doge","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-consolidation","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville-overspending","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}