{"id":294253,"date":"2026-06-03T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294253\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:06:08","slug":"city-council-delays-bill-to-put-1-mill-school-tax-renewal-on-november-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294253\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council delays bill to put 1-mill school tax renewal on November ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville City Council\u2019s Finance Committee has delayed a bill authorizing a November referendum to renew the Duval County School District\u2019s property tax levy used to bolster teacher pay.<\/p>\n

The legislation was filed last month after the School Board voted 6-1<\/a> to bring the renewal of the 1-mill property tax first approved in 2022 to voters this fall.<\/p>\n

In a 4-3 decision Tuesday, the council committee deferred Ordinance 2026-0387 for up to two weeks, which officials say will create a tight deadline for the referendum to make the November ballot.<\/p>\n

When voters go to the polls later this year, the district is asking for an extension of the 1-mill they approved in 2022, not a new tax. The 1-mill levy \u2014 or $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value \u2014 comes to about $300 per year for the average homeowner.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the committee\u2019s decision, which by Florida statute is meant to be a pass-through, ended with more than an hour of debate. Some council members called for district officials to approach city lawmakers and explain the need to continue the extra tax revenue.<\/p>\n

Council member Ron Salem said it took nearly two months for district officials to return his request for a meeting on the referendum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is so important to the School Board and community, somebody needs to respond,\u201d Salem said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lawyer from the city\u2019s Office of General Counsel told committee members that the council\u2019s role in placing the referendum on the ballot is a requirement based on the school board\u2019s direction, not a decision for them to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statute indicates that the school board shall direct the council to coordinate putting this on the ballot with the supervisor of elections. In this one particular type of ad valorem millage, they don\u2019t have the authority to directly submit it to the supervisor of elections. They have to go through the council,\u201d Mary Staffopoulos, deputy general counsel, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is somewhat of a ministerial action of the council to approve putting this on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staffopoulos\u00a0said the district needs the bill to pass soon in order for the elections office to have enough time to get the referendum to make the November ballot. She says, at the latest, the full council would need to vote on the bill by its June 23 meeting.<\/p>\n

Council member Matt Carlucci said the renewed 1-mill will boost pay for district police as well as maintain past raises for teachers. He told committee members the delay is \u201cplaying games with something we shouldn\u2019t be playing games with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is on a very sensitive time frame. I think it would be well if one of those who voted no would change their vote to a yes just to get it through committee and you can vote no at council all you want,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cI think that would be a reasonable request, and I would ask that one of the committee members would be serious enough about our schools and our teachers to reverse the vote to get it out of committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council member Raul Arias called the need to extend the 1-mill to pay teachers a \u201cfalse narrative.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salem supported the 1-mill in 2022. On Tuesday, he pointed to Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 property tax cut proposal, approved by the state Legislature<\/a> on Tuesday, as justification for declining to support the district\u2019s renewal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the world has changed with what\u2019s going on in Tallahassee with property taxes, which is one of the reasons I\u2019m voting no,\u201d Salem said. \u201cWe have got to give relief to our citizens in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis and the Legislature\u2019s proposed property tax cut will also go before voters in November. It would need 60% for approval. But state lawmakers carved out public schools in their final proposals, allowing districts to keep their property tax revenues.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s School Board meeting, Superintendent Christopher Bernier said, despite the finance committee\u2019s deferral, his goal \u201ccontinues to be to give voters their voice in November.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bernier said the district will consult with its attorneys to \u201cunderstand what this deferral means procedurally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate to live in the state of Florida, where state law provides voters the final say,\u201d Bernier said. \u201cLet\u2019s let the people of Jacksonville decide the type of school district and community they want in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the 1-mill pays for\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duval County voters first approved the extra 1-mill tax in 2022 to boost teacher pay, supporting recruitment and retention. The tax revenue is also used to enhance art, music and athletic programs, according to the district. And there is some revenue sharing required by state statute with Duval County\u2019s public charter schools.<\/p>\n

In an email Tuesday, District spokesperson Tracy Pierce said officials expect the 1-mill tax to generate $121.3 million this year. That continues to exceed the district\u2019s initial estimate in 2022 of $108 million annually. After the charter school share, traditional schools will net about $97.5 million this year.<\/p>\n

Pierce said 87.5% of the district\u2019s share of the millage goes to supplement pay for teachers, school police, and other staff. The remaining 12.5% goes to student arts and athletics programs.<\/p>\n

For teachers, the referendum would help maintain teacher and other staff pay \u2014 including campus police officers. In his email, Pierce said the teacher salary supplement from the millage is about $8,600.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the committee decided to hit pause on the bill, council member Will Lahnen moved to change his vote Tuesday from \u201cyes\u201d to \u201cno\u201d to break a 3-3 tie and send it to full council next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was after council President Kevin Carrico declined to commit to discharging the legislation from committee and setting up the final vote next week \u2014 a decision he could make before the regular council meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Lahnen said he supports sending the tax extension to the voters and planned to switch his vote back to yes when the bill comes to a final vote.<\/p>\n

In the end, Carrico, Salem, Arias and Diamond voted to defer the bill. Finance Chair Joe Carlucci and committee members Ju\u2019Coby Pittman and Lahnen voted against the deferral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council Vice President Nick Howland, who sits on the Finance Committee, was absent from the meeting.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today Education Reporter Megan Mallicoat contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville City Council\u2019s Finance Committee has delayed a bill authorizing a November referendum to renew the Duval…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-294253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294253","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=294253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}