JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Mayor Donna Deegan is warning local voters about the proposed property tax phaseout for cities and counties set to appear on the November ballot, calling it a \u201chastily conceived, short-sighted overhaul\u201d.<\/p>\n
That plan, according to an analysis by the Florida Association of Counties<\/a>, would slash nearly $224 million from Jacksonville\u2019s budget starting in 2027 and drain nearly $387 million from the local budget the following fiscal year.<\/p>\n While voters may have the final say on the matter, Mayor Deegan branded the push a \u201cTallahassee takeover\u201d as she argued it would take control over local quality of life spending decisions out of the hands of local governments.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis proposed reduction will inevitably result in road deteriorating, libraries, pools and parks closing, public safety response times going up, housing affordability worsening and more homeless on our streets,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cThose are just the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Deegan also contested the branding of the measure as a \u201ctax cut\u201d, arguing that while some may see their property tax bills reduced, other costs will add up as a result of those lost services.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nurse whose rent will go up. The teacher whose property insurance skyrockets because, well, we can\u2019t build that fire station close to her house like we were going to. The small business owner who loses foot traffic because the park next door had to close,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13) has been steadily posting on social media various programs and city initiatives he wants to see cut, including arts grants, funding for non-governmental organizations, non-profits and city incentives for developers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll see in about a month, but I\u2019m going to post 30 posts on things that we can cut and it\u2019s more than $300 million that can come out of our budget,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n He argued those cuts could be made without impacting core services like police and fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big enchilada is economic incentives. Hundreds of millions of dollars the mayor has wanted to send to millionaires and billionaire developers downtown. We could cut them and we absolutely must,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n But Mayor Deegan had this to say when we asked about Diamond\u2019s proposed cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to be the city that Rory Diamond imagines, you know, apparently that just is falling apart at the seams in every way. I mean, hey, at least we\u2019ll have police and fire funded and the garbage may or may not be picked up. I don\u2019t know,\u201d Deegan said. \u201dThat\u2019s not the city that I think most people in this city want.\u201d<\/p>\n The property tax measure will need 60 percent voter support to pass.<\/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 Mayor Donna Deegan is warning local voters about the proposed property tax phaseout for cities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[982,7840,56464,9325,56463,28,45945,969,1130,116,971,44780,55599,634,1375,124911,9324,232,234,233,7842],"class_list":["post-296433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-action_news","tag-ben_becker","tag-deegan","tag-diamond","tag-donna_degan","tag-florida","tag-florida_association_of_counties","tag-jack","tag-jackson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jake","tag-jake_s_stan","tag-jake_stan","tag-local","tag-mayor","tag-mayor_donna_deegan","tag-rory_diamond","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tanika_hughes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296433","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=296433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}