City auditors are raising serious questions about how the Jacksonville Transportation Authority handles your tax dollars.<\/p>\n
At a City Council Financial Audit and Oversight (FAO) Select Committee meeting on Thursday, they laid out a blunt picture of JTA’s finances and how difficult it’s been to get answers about the agency’s finances.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n The auditors said during the meeting they see a pattern with JTA.<\/p>\n We learned of a history of missed answers and poor financial projections that eventually led to a hole in the budget north of $30 million.<\/p>\n Auditors laid it all out and they didn’t hold back.<\/p>\n RELATED: Jacksonville City Council approves $30 million loan for JTA amid financial crisis<\/a><\/p>\n “They have been the most difficult agency to work with,” they said.<\/p>\n Pulling teeth. That’s how council auditors describe getting answers from JTA about the agency’s finances.<\/p>\n And it’s in writing. Twice in their report, auditors asked JTA what it cut. Twice, no explanation.<\/p>\n RELATED: New subpoena issued in Florida AG’s investigation of JTA seeking emails between mayor, CEOs<\/a><\/p>\n For years, the auditors said their quarterly reviews flagged budget gaps and late reports.<\/p>\n And for years, JTA found a way to land the plane before the fiscal year ran out. Not this time.<\/p>\n By June, JTA’s own numbers projected a $31.8 million hole, a decrease of $17.4 million coming in.<\/p>\n RELATED: Mayor Deegan, JTA shut down any possibility of using tolls to fix financial crisis<\/a><\/p>\n And an increase of $14.4 million more going out, over what the budget allowed.<\/p>\n And where did the budget grow? JTA’s self-driving vehicle program, the NAVI, and its Autonomous Innovation Center, up more than $10.8 million.<\/p>\n “They under budgeted on their fringe benefits across multiple division on multiple occasions,” the auditor said.<\/p>\n RELATED: Council President convenes new committee to conduct autopsy on JTA financial troubles<\/a><\/p>\n Fringe benefits, the costs stacked on top of paychecks, swelled past $7.4 million.<\/p>\n So, who’s getting that money? Bus drivers or the front office?<\/p>\n “I don’t know how we can do our job if we don’t ask (former JTA CEO) Nat Ford some questions,” Jacksonville City Councilman Rory Diamond said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n So, who knew what, and when?<\/p>\n JTA CFO Randall Barnes said the board got quarterly reports, but no projections.<\/p>\n “If I’m a board member, I am sitting home angry as hell,” Jacksonville City Councilman Ron Salem said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n Translation: the people responsible for overseeing JTA weren’t shown where the money was headed: Off the financial cliff that’s lead to nearly 200 layoffs, service cuts, and stalled projects.<\/p>\n “It’s wild to be on a board and not to get projections. And then it begs the second question: were they intentionally not given projections?” Diamond said.<\/p>\n Now, auditors want forecasts every month, in public, in front of the board.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City auditors are raising serious questions about how the Jacksonville Transportation Authority handles your tax dollars. At a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-429003","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\/429003","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=429003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}