The Jacksonville City Council may decide tonight whether to bend to constituents who have become increasingly vocal in opposing a property tax rate increase.

If that happens, the council would have until Thursday to find $45 million in budget cuts to keep the tax rate flat.

Or the council could vote tonight to stick with the $1 billion budget and 9 percent millage hike that has already received tentative approval.

Several constituent groups are gearing up for protests before the 5 p.m. meeting and encouraging citizens to attend and speak out against the millage increase. But it remains a mystery if the last-minute lobbying will be enough to sway council members, some of whom have been involved in budget discussions as far back as February.

Tonight’s meeting will be the first for Councilman Warren Jones since he became chairman of the Finance Committee, which unanimously approved the city budget after weeks of debate and reducing spending by $4 million. He said he remains supportive of the budget despite the public pressure to vote against the tax rate increases.

Jones and the rest of the council members are in the difficult position of trying to balance city spending priorities, rising health-care and pension costs and the unpopular politics of increasing the millage rate. All but one of the 18 council members are either up for re-election or running for another city office in the spring.

Jones said he understands the tough economic situation faced by many property owners in his district, which includes several low-income neighborhoods. But the alternative — cutting spending by $45 million to keep the property tax rate flat from the current year ­— is even less appealing to Jones.

“The justification is pretty easy in that many of the services that many of the people I represent are dependent upon are the very services that are targeted for cutbacks or reductions,” Jones said.

Council President Jack Webb said how long the meeting, which begins at 5 p.m., will last depends on two things: how many constituents speak during a public hearing and how many amendments are introduced by council members.

Alternative ideas

Some ideas have been floated in recent weeks, but not all of them will be put on the table tonight.

For example, Councilman Dick Brown floated a proposal to cut salaries for high-wage appointed employees up to 5 percent. He is now backing away from that, saying talks with Mayor’s Office staff and Sheriff John Rutherford have convinced him that some of the initial calculations were off base and the proposal has unintended consequences.

Brown said he will instead advocate adjusting salary ranges for some appointed city positions, a process that will take place at a later date.

Other often-mentioned targets include eliminating or reducing funding for the Human Rights Commission, which has a $1 million budget, the Inspector General’s Office, also budgeted at $1 million, the Children’s Commission, budgeted for $21 million, and Jacksonville Journey, which has a $10 million budget.

It would take 10 council members to approve any amendments, and previous attempts to target each of those departments have not gained that level of support.

Council members voted 13-5 two weeks ago to give tentative approval of the budget. If those numbers stand, that is enough to approve the property tax rate increase for Jacksonville and the overall city budget. But one more vote is needed to meet the three-fourths majority needed to approve the property tax rate for the Beaches and Baldwin, which would increase 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Sleiman ads

Meanwhile, council members have been fielding calls and e-mails from constituents as tonight’s meeting drew near, most against the proposed tax rate increase. Last week, shopping center developer Toney Sleiman and a group of anonymous donors created television ads encouraging constituents to reach out to council mem... and attend the meeting.

Starting about 4 p.m., pickets and protests are expected outside City Hall. The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County is hosting a “Team Taxpayer Tail Gate Party” featuring “budget buster baloney sandwiches” and “free Kool-Aid for city administrators and City Council members,” according to a news release the organization sent out Sunday.

Firefighters are also expected to turn out in big numbers just days after they rejected a collective bargaining agreement that would have reduced their pay by 2 percent. As a result, 15 firefighters were laid off and another 23 were demoted.

Citizens will be allowed to speak for three minutes each during a combined public hearing before the four budget-related bills are addressed. There is no limit on the number of constituents who can participate in the public hearing, which could make it a long one.

Then, the bills will be taken up one by one. The first two will set the property tax rates for the Beaches and Baldwin, a measure that will require 14 votes for approval.

The third bill sets the Jacksonville millage and the fourth is the city budget. Those two only require a 10-vote majority for passage. The fourth bill is the one where cost-cutting measures would be proposed.

Council members have up to eight minutes to speak on each bill or floor amendment that is introduced. If the meeting runs late, council members will have to vote on whether they will continue the discussion beyond midnight or reconvene the next morning to finish their agenda.

tia.mitchell@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4425

link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-09-27/story/city-council-mu...