We should thank Mayor Deegan’s administration for publishing easy to understand budget highlights that accompany her fiscal year 2026-27 proposed general operating budget.
Just shy of 400 pages, Deegan’s budget proposal, like all Jacksonville city budgets, is a tough slog. Pictures help. The highlights make the complex much easier to understand. We get a general glimpse at current revenue, the myriad sources of that revenue, and how the Deegan people propose to spend that revenue.
We also can imagine which expenditures are untouchable and touchable.
Despite their simplicity, these highlights do not help us understand revenues and expenses over time, nor do we get a sense of population growth over time. This last is important because our City budget serves an ever increasing number of folks. We grew by an estimated 70,000 between 2020 and 2026. Just saying.
On the revenue side, for example, JEA’s contribution to the city’s operating budget, noted above at $151+ million, has steadily increased over the past decade. Why? No doubt, this revenue provides mayors and City Council members an opportunity to increase general operating revenue without raising the property millage rate or introducing user fees and additional sales taxes. Do other explanations exist?
The revenue highlights also indicate that the “State Sales Tax and the Communications Service Tax had notable decreases.” Over what period of time, by how much, and why exactly? Who is responsible and what explains these decreases? What must we sacrifice because this revenue has declined?
On the expense side, the effect of past accumulated unpaid city pension obligations (which grew unnecessarily because the Curry Administration kicked the can down the road) on current expenditures is not highlighted. Clear illustration, together with a trend line, would help the public and maybe-just-maybe our elected representatives understand the costly consequences of their not having fulfilled our obligations when they occurred.
This matters to our current budget exercise because we use current revenues to correct past mistakes. The pension fund’s latest actuarial report shows an unfunded liability topping $3 Billion. Budget news reports show $209+million in Deegan’s FY ‘26-27 budget proposal dedicated to pension costs, which includes paying past pension debts. This expense is shown pictorially but not broken out under the $502+million “Other Expenses” category.
The Lesson: we must understand the future cost of poor decisions, and vow not to repeat them. The future eventually arrives. Kick the can is a kids game, not a responsible budget practice.
Deegan’s budget proposes a mere 1% increase in expenses, a zero increase in overall personnel, and zero increase in the millage rate. She prioritizes public safety (police and fire/rescue employee numbers, salaries, and benefits increase) and infrastructure investments.
What’s not anticipated in Deegan’s budget proposal is passage of Amendment 3, a local property tax revolution that promises to radically reduce local governmental revenue and thus public services, or change how we raise revenue, or both. Deegan assumes business as usual. City Council president Nick Howland, on the other hand, assumes a radical reduction in revenue. A proponent of Amendment 3, Howland is asking his City Council colleagues to imagine a budget that factors in radical reduction in local property tax revenue, estimated at $150 million in FY ‘26-27, followed by $300 million in FY ‘27-28, and thereafter.
Let’s imagine we’re the finance committee. How would we remove $300 million in expenditures? The budget highlight pictures make our playing this game far easier than it would otherwise be.
At the outset, some ground rules: We must understand that our beginning budget is not $2+ Billion, but $743+ million. The $2+ Billion budget includes untouchables totaling $1,282,773,873 [public safety ($1,073,743,873) and pension debt obligations ($209 million). From our $743+ million, we subtract $300 million, leaving us with $443+million [$2,026,502,015 - $1,282,773,873 (untouchables) = $743,728,142 - $300,000,000 (property tax revenue reduction) = $443,728,142].
Here’s the exercise, in two parts, testing math and reasoning skills:
Math portion: from our $743+ million beginning budget, remove items totaling $300 million using amounts shown in Deegan’s budget highlight pictures. Alternatively, begin with zero and choose items totaling $443+ million to include in your city budget. You may not choose from untouchable categories titled Public Safety and Other Expenses.
You may, if you choose, fantasize about additional revenue streams, e.g., adding user fees for visiting public parks, praying for manna from heaven. Whatever fantasy works for you.
Reasoning portion: in language common folk understand, explain which people benefit and how. Remember the Matt Carlucci rule: a budget represents a set of values, and behind every number exists a human being (Florida Times-Union, Sunday, August 2, 2026 edition).
To aid your imagination, you may attend Mayor Deegan’s town hall sessions to gain additional insight into our current budget realities, and/or take in the Finance Committee’s budget deliberations. Committee members, after all, are tasked with reimagining Deegan’s budget proposal into their own, and submitting their work to the full City Council for approval on September 22.
Deegan’s events begin at 6 p.m. on the following dates:
Aug. 5, Jean Ribault High School, 3701 Winton Drive
Aug. 13, Julia Landon College Preparatory & Leadership Development School, 1819 Thacker Ave.
Aug. 19, Duncan U. Fletcher High School, 700 Seagate Ave.
Aug. 27, Mandarin High School, 4831 Greenland Road
Sept. 1, Ortega Elementary School, 4010 Baltic St.
Sept. 8, Terry Parker High School, 7301 Parker School Road
Sept. 15, First Coast High School, 590 Duval Station Road
Sept. 21, Edward H. White High School, 1700 Old Middleburg Road N.
Finance Committee budget hearings begin at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. on these dates:
Aug 13, 14, 20, 21, 26, and 27.
You have between now and September 22 to fill your shopping cart with items. Keep a list, and see how close you come to what City Council votes to adopt at their September 22 meeting.
Above all, have fun. Make this a family game, or a parlor game. Invite your friends and produce a collective budget.
And leave a comment to let us know where your imagination leads you.
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