Deegan’s $2B budget: public safety, affordable housing, and roads and bridges

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan unveiled a $2.026 billion general fund budget Monday that keeps the property tax millage steady — her final annual spending plan before the 2027 mayoral election.

In the weeks leading up to the address, Deegan promised a “lean budget” for the 2026-27 fiscal year. What she presented to City Council was a 1.1%, $22.58 million increase over this year, driven by salary increases for police and fire employees.

The spend on the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department would be more than half Deegan’s total budget, if adopted by city lawmakers as presented — a combined $1.07 billion.

Deegan also is going to try again to get council to approve and seed an affordable housing trust fund. The nonprofit Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment has pushed the mayor to put $10 millon into a fund to deal with unaffordable housing.

Budget documents show a $4.9 million line item for the fund, and Deegan says there will be a total of $5.5 million to build more housing for lower-income level families and to assist first-time homebuyers.

Her $586.11 million Capital Improvement Plan — money for roads, bridges, parks and other city infrastructure projects — is $98 million less than this year. 

But Deegan is touting a $13.2 million jump to $35.94 million in road resurfacing throughout Duval County and $25 million to address aging septic tanks in the city’s historically underserved neighborhoods. Plus millions more for waterway bulkheads and sidewalk installations and repairs. 

Deegan entered her speech Monday with some goodwill with the new Republican City Council president, Nick Howland. 

But she faces a GOP majority council that has signaled it’s ready to slice or make some city spending contingent on the looming November voter referendum to cut Florida’s homestead property taxes, and with it future city revenue.

Deegan’s message to conservative city lawmakers Monday: Think long-term benefits versus costs.

“We should never confuse inaction with conservatism. Sometimes the most expensive thing government can do is nothing. Because maintenance deferred is not savings. It is hidden debt,” Deegan said. 

“The road we fail to maintain becomes the road we must rebuild. The drainage project we delay becomes the neighborhood that floods again,” she said. “The permitting system we neglect becomes the business that opens somewhere else. The family we fail to stabilize becomes an emergency call, an eviction, a hospital visit or a crisis that costs way more than prevention ever would have.” 

Budget breakdown

In addition to the Sheriff’s Office’s proposal of $675 million, the Deegan administration also wants council to approve the sheriff’s request for $10 million for a warehouse consolidation project and for an $8 million facility for its mounted unit. 

Of the $586 million Deegan’s capital plan would spend on infrastructure, $220 million of that is earmarked for the city’s $1.4 billion renovation of Everbank Stadium with the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

An additional $4 million would be available to the Eastside in this budget, the second installment of $40 million in public funding from the city’s Community Benefits Agreement for that neighborhood with the Jaguars in the stadium deal.

The $25 million for septic tank removals is $16 million more than this year’s city budget. 

There’s $27 million previously approved in this budget going toward the Jacksonville Museum of Science & History’s move to a new Northbank facility, and $25 million for the second phase of Riverfront Plaza Downtown.

Deegan’s capital expenditures also include millions for library remodels, repairs and new builds, including a planned $7 million for the Brentwood branch.

The budget continues to provide $56 million to UF Health Jacksonville for indigent care and another $24 million for capital improvements to the medical center’s city-owned facilities in Springfield.

City-funded public health care was one of the biggest battles between the mayor’s office and council during last year’s budget hearings. Despite some council members’ attempt to strip Healthlink Jax, the city’s telehealth program for uninsured residents, from this year’s budget, Deegan’s budget asks for $1.5 million to fully fund the program.

Council member Rory Diamond, whose investigation into the program on the Duval DOGE committee did not produce the fraud he alleged, was absent from Monday’s budget address.

So was council member Raul Arias.

In her speech, the mayor repeatedly talked of the economic value and return on investment of the city’s cultural and social programs.

The budget bumps the budget for the city’s crime diversion program Jacksonville Journey Forward from $2 million to $2.26 million. 

Money from Public Service Grants dropped slightly from the $7.2 million in this year’s approved budget to $6.984 million in Deegan’s proposal. But they’ve included a $216,000 micro grant program that council approved this year. 

The budget for the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, which handles the city’s public art appropriations and planning as well as public service grants, remains flat at $6.944 million in the mayor’s proposal.

Howland told Jacksonville Today after the mayor’s speech he expects a “respectful” but “very Republican versus Democrat” debate around what are considered essential core city services — a litmus test he says he wants for all city spending next year.

Deegan told council members Monday that what her administration considers a core service may not be universally used by every resident. 

“In a city of a million people, not everyone will use the same service, visit the same park, need the same program or personally enjoy the same event. That is not a flaw in a city,” Deegan said in her speech. “That is what a city is. Not every investment is personally used by every resident. But every responsible investment should return value to the whole city. And in this budget, they do.” 

The city’s three most expensive departments — public works, parks and public libraries — all saw modest budget increases. They’re at $69.39 million, $58.74 million and $45.745 million, respectively.

The property tax referendum, if approved in November, would not start affecting the city’s property tax revenue until next year. For now, the city is projected to have 6% more ad valorem property tax dollars than this year — $1.29 billion, up from $1.177  billion. 

JEA, Jacksonville electric and water utility, will contribute $151.48 million to the city’s general fund for next year. 

Reaction to the budget 

• Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment board member Geneva Pittman (on affordable housing trust fund dollars): “It’s fine. We want something because the people need housing. We’re talking about people who make $50,000 or less. And those people deserve to have a home just like me or anyone else who can afford a home that’s much more.”

• Republican City Council President Nick Howland: “As always, the mayor proposed a very clear, well-thought-out proposed budget. What you’re going to see over the course of the summer, a good political debate about what constitutes core local services. We’ve expected that, and that’s kind of what she laid out as well. And it will be a respectful debate, centered around different political beliefs. That’s clear to me.”

• Republican City Council member Ken Amaro: “I want to commend the mayor for her scathing rebuke of this concept in government of deferred maintenance. To me in my short tenure I found that to be cowardice, if you will. We’re sent here for what we’re supposed to do and unfortunately when things are deferred it accumulates and becomes a bigger price tag later down the road.”

• Republican City Council Finance Committee Chair Will Lahnen: “Last year we had one of our highest (Capital Improvement Plans) ever. This year it’s about $100 million lower than last year’s. I view that as a positive, because most of our capital projects are debt funded. And that debt is an annual expense.”

• Democratic City Council member Jimmy Peluso: “I’m incredibly excited about the road resurfacing dollars that you’re putting into this city. It’s been a massive need for a long time. …The drainage projects as well. Myself and council member (Joe) Carrlucci, our districts are consistently flooded. So these projects are going to save lives, help improve people’s transit to-and-from work.”

What’s next?

Now the Deegan administration says it will try to rally support for her budget priorities in a series of eight town halls, beginning with a meeting from 6 to 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at Jean Ribault High School. 

Then the council’s Finance Committee will begin its monthlong vetting of the spending plan. The Finance Committee will hold six days of hearings starting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 13 at City Hall. 

Deegan says the city’s combined emergency and general fund is more than $500 million. Any excess in this budget will go to fund previously approved economic development completion grants, directed by legislation from Lahnen and council member Chris Miller earlier this year.

Lahnen says he thinks “government is growing in the right areas” in this budget, with 74 first responder positions added and six non-public safety jobs eliminated.

But he expects debate around some new spending in the budget, particularly the housing trust fund dollars and cost increases on some infrastructure projects. 

“There’s a fairly lengthy list of projects noted as having cost increases,” Lahnen told Jacksonville Today. “We’ll be getting more information about those. Particularly on some of those projects that were approved in prior years, but not all of them have started. So if there has been a big cost increase to a project that hasn’t started yet, I think we need to redebate that.”