{"id":774956,"date":"2026-07-21T01:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/774956\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T01:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:39:08","slug":"government-is-growing-in-the-right-areas-council-finance-chair-backs-public-safety-spending-as-budget-talks-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/774956\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Government is growing in the right areas\u2019: Council finance chair backs public safety spending as budget talks begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan delivered her proposed budget to the Jacksonville City Council on Monday<\/a>, calling it a lean plan that keeps public safety as the city\u2019s biggest spending priority while setting aside nearly $674 million for the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The proposal lists the city\u2019s general fund at just over $2 billion<\/a>, an increase of about 1.1% from the prior year, according to the city\u2019s budget highlights. Deegan emphasized the city is not drawing from reserves for the second year in a row and said the growth is tied to commitments already made to first responders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason for that rise is because we made a promise to do right by our first responders three years ago and we will continue to keep that promise,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n

In the budget highlights, public safety accounts for 53% of the general fund \u2014 more than $1.07 billion. That includes $673,613,389 for JSO and $400,130,519 for Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety remains the most important responsibility we have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After the budget was unveiled, Sheriff T.K. Waters told News4JAX the JSO figure was in line with what he expected, while stressing the department needs to be careful with taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be very careful how we spend the dollars,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n

Waters said much of the increase is tied to staffing costs. <\/p>\n

\u201c80% of this budget is for our salary and our benefits,\u201d he said, noting some increases are driven by contractual obligations.<\/p>\n

JSO also shared a breakdown of its spending with News4JAX that reflects that point: 80.04% of the sheriff\u2019s budget goes to salaries and benefits, with smaller portions allocated to interlocal service charges (7.19%), professional and contractual services (6.6%), other operating supplies (5.29%) and insurance (0.88%).<\/p>\n

JSO Budget Breakdown (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Waters said the proposed funding is aimed at maintaining current operations and keeping up with technology needs \u2014 not a major staffing expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t ask for new officers\u2026 that stuff\u2019s expensive,\u201d Waters said. \u201cTechnology is constantly increasing and our ability to keep up is very, very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal now heads into weeks of council review. City Council Finance Chair Will Lahnen said the process begins with council auditors checking details and funding sources, before lawmakers start longer hearings.<\/p>\n

Lahnen said he was encouraged by the public safety priorities in the mayor\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks to me like government is growing in the right areas,\u201d he said, adding he was \u201cglad to see public safety fully funded.\u201d<\/p>\n

But both Lahnen and Deegan pointed to uncertainty ahead, with a statewide property tax amendment headed to voters in November. Deegan warned that if revenue drops significantly, city spending choices could get tougher.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is going to be affected,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cWhen you have to cut a third of your budget, pretty much a third of everything is under scrutiny for going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lahnen said that means the Finance Committee may need to prepare for a loss in revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be some items that we\u2019re going to say \u2018Hey. Let\u2019s come back and revisit this after November to see if it\u2019s still feasible.\u2019 If we\u2019re going to start gearing up for what\u2019s going to be a 200 million less the next year and then 100 million more or less in the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budget hearings are expected to begin in August, with a final council vote set for the end of September.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan delivered her proposed budget to the Jacksonville City Council on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,150,451,14310,22264,3,45030,4752,452,453],"class_list":["post-774956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-budget","tag-headlines","tag-jacksonville","tag-jso","tag-news","tag-property-tax","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}