TU: Jacksonville Council committee pursues bills for Mayport ferry commission, taxing district referendum

[Patricia M. McBride]

This is an on going issue, and this article provides quite a bit of new information.  I am in hopes it provides you with an adequate update on where the Mayport Ferry is headed.  I have some concern about the time between when the ferry runs out of funding and when we might get to voice an opinion on a referendum.  Your thoughts?

.............................................................

Submitted by Steve Patterson on March 29, 2012 - 6:10pm PolitiJax

A Jacksonville City Council voted Thursday to have a city lawyer draft legislation to create a St. Johns River Ferry Commission and to schedule a referendum on a special taxing district to help finance the ferry.

But the referendum may not get to the ballot until November, two months after the ferry stops operating. And some ferry advocates seemed to hold little hope for the measure, which would target the areas near both ferry slips and strips of land along Hesckscher Drive and Florida A1A.

“It sounds like what you’re going to do is go to people in a kind of  a depressed area and ask them to impose a tax on themselves,” said Neptune Beach resident Tom Patton.

“The outcome, I think would be almost a foregone conclusion. … Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”

Read more here:  http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403455/steve-patterson/2012-03...