Jacksonville council tentatively approves another property tax hike/Final action 9/28

[Patricia M. McBride]

When you vote for your city councilman or woman next time around, you may wish to consider how they voted on this. Council members Glorious Johnson, Clay Yarborough, Richard Clark, John Crescimbeni and Bill Bishop voted against each of the four bills connected to the budget and tax rate, but the other 13 city council members voted for the tax increase.

Here is something I would certainly ask councilman Webb about: Clark said Tuesday night’s procedural vote wasn’t the time for him to propose his ideas for cutting the budget by $45 million, the amount needed to avoid a tax rate increase.

PLEASE write to your city council person or all of them and let them know how you feel about this tax increase in the middle of the worst recession we have had in forever. And go to the meeting on the 28th and get a card to speak and tell them in person as well as writing to them. We have to outnumber the letter writing campaigns of the unions and special interest groups........................

Council will take final action on Sept. 28.

Posted: September 14, 2010 - 9:27pm

By Tia Mitchell

Jacksonville’s budget, balanced with a property tax rate increase, received tentative City Council approval Tuesday night.

The council voted 13-5 to boost the millage rate to a maximum of 10.12, a 9 percent increase from the current year to pay for the roughly $1 billion general fund budget.

Council members Glorious Johnson, Clay Yarborough, Richard Clark, John Crescimbeni and Bill Bishop voted against each of the four bills connected to the budget and tax rate. However, there was little discussion on the bills before the votes were taken and none of the dissenting council members lobbied in favor of additional budget cuts or attempted to get the millage rate decreased.

Council President Jack Webb said he was surprised by the lack of debate.

“I was fully prepared to entertain some proposed amendments to the budget from council members, and as I said before, I’m all ears if anyone wanted to propose additional cuts,” he said. “Nothing was forthcoming from any members of the council.”

Public hearings were held before the bills were tentatively approved, but only a handful of community members addressed the council. Most, but not all, lobbied against a property tax rate increase, saying homeowners couldn’t afford it in a down economy.

Jacksonville shopping center developer Toney Sleiman had spent recent days lobbying behind-the-scenes against a tax rate increase but did not address the council Tuesday night.

Clark said Tuesday night’s procedural vote wasn’t the time for him to propose his ideas for cutting the budget by $45 million, the amount needed to avoid a tax rate increase. That will likely come either at next week’s Finance Committee or at the Sept. 28 council meeting where a final budget vote is scheduled.

The 10.12 millage is the “rollback” rate, or what the city would have to levy to keep property tax revenue consistent due to declines in property values.

The Finance Committee had recommended approval of the budget after spending roughly six weeks studying departmental spending and finding roughly $3 million in cuts. That could lead to a slight decrease from 10.12 mills before the council gives final approval but that has not been further discussed.

The council must approve a balanced budget before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Initially, there was a mix-up in the listed results of how two council members voted. Because of a set-up error with the computer system, Bishop’s “no” vote and new Councilman Dick Brown’s “yes” vote were switched. The switch was caught quickly and corrected.

It was Brown’s first council meeting since the governor appointed him to the seat vacated by Art Graham.

Brown said he spent the past two weeks being brought up to speed on the budget issue and is hopeful the tax rate will be decreased before final approval, but he voted “yes” Tuesday night to ensure flexibility in case additional savings can’t be found.

“If 10 of us had voted no tonight it would have thrown the city into a true crisis because tonight would have been our last chance to raise any additional funds and it would be impossible to find $45 million reductions between now and the end of the month,” Brown said.

Bishop said it can be done and is advocating across-the-board budget cuts to avoid a rate increase. He said the council has approved tax rate and fee increases for the last three years and “enough is enough.”

“We just can’t simply continue to tax people,” he said. “It’s got to stop.”

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