May 6 Town Hall Budget meeting

[Dolph Van Laanen]

Pat, cannot be there - - but I hope someone will raise this
suggestion:

Instead of looking for taxes as a way to increase revenue, why doesn't the city move JEA over into a public-traded utility company
Put it on the NYSE or Nasdaq, where it would have to comply with SEC regulations
(which would be a good thing).

The city would benefit several ways:
Immediate revenue by selling some of its shares
Continuing revenue from dividends
and
JEA would get tighter controls and scrutiny as a public utility.

Also, a plus, that need not be mentioned: city gets out from under a "greek" unionized power base.
Hope you can make this a topic of continuing discussion, and bring it to fruition.

Best wishes,

[Patricia M. McBride]

Dennis, if you are not yet on board for the city council etal group, I wish you would sign on. I am going to post the suggestions I heard last night when I finish posting this and would be quite interested in your take on them.

[Patricia M. McBride]

Thanks Dennis for your very knowledgable input. Now, at least, I understand how they put us down as the lowest for property tax in about the whole state. They apparently aren't counting what they are collecting on JEA. It would not be to their advantage at all to sell the utility, and it certainly wouldn't be to our advantage.

[Dennis J. Fleming]

Everyone should be aware that JEA transfers the equivalent of approximately $1,000,000 per weekday to the City of Jacksonville in transfer payments. That total transfer in FY2011 will be $240,000,000. This transfer is approximately 25% of the City budget. The transfer payment does not include the additional revenue collected via sales tax for the City and State. JEA customers fund one quarter of the City’s budget through their utility bills. That is in addition to the property taxes they pay.
I suggest those who think converting our citizen owned non-profit utility, JEA, to a profit making corporation will result in increased revenue for the city and/or reduced utility bill very carefully consider the pros and cons. Also, the sale price of JEA would of course be diminished by the large amount of debt on JEA’s book that was incurred to improve the water, waste water and electric systems in JEA’s service area

I, for one, do not see a potential benefit to converting JEA to a private corporation

[Patricia M. McBride]

Hello again Dolph,
I sent your suggestion to Councilman Yarborough. I also spoke to someone who knows about these things. What he said was: If they do that, it will give them a sizeable shot of money, but it really won't solve the problem and after the initial shot of money, that's it. The down side is that then we have a private rather than public utility and they historically charge thier customers far higher utility rates, so it isn't good for the people of the city as any boost the city would get (and Peyton seems to be like Obama in that he just can't stand not to spend every dime he gets and more), and the people of the city would pay far more in increased utility bills over the long haul than the city would gain from the sale.

[Patricia M. McBride]

Dolph,
Sure wish you had posted this on the group for City Council. I didn't see your blog post until this morning. You do understand that you can by all means call or write your council person and they will be more than happy to accept any comments or suggestions from you. They need the support of the people of Jacksonville, because financially, the city is in a bit of a spot. Things are going to get much worse if something isn't done and just increasing taxes again this year isn't a solution as next year the deficit will be even larger than this year with a projection for about 5 years from now of 250 million if something is not done to get the city budget issues under control. Sadly, the area that MUST be addressed is the retirement and salary situation with our police and fire departments. I know this a sacred and no one appreciates the job these folks do more than I do, but if nothing is done, the city will, in very short order, be bankrupt and have to file as such. I will be posting some of the issues mentioned last night this morning over on the City Council group. Please feel free to join the group. No meetings, but I would ask you to post anything relavent to the issue of our city finances or possible solutions. Thanks, Pat