Deegan’s city budget could include record spending on police and fire

When Mayor Donna Deegan presents her annual budget next month to the Jacksonville City Council, it will likely come with another year of record spending on police and fire and rescue services. 

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has asked the mayor to include $675.9 million for the department in the city budget, according to documents presented to the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee. 

That’s a 5.9% increase over the $637.9 million the department received in the 2025-26 budget approved by council members.

For the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, the budget could include a 2.3% increase to $396.4 million, if Deegan includes fire officials’ full spending request.

Officials from both departments presented their spending plans and priorities Wednesday to the review board during a budget hearing. 

The city’s chief financial officer, Anna Brosche, tells Jacksonville Today that the biggest drivers of the jump in spending for public safety are salary increases. 

“The vast majority of the increases that you see in that $37.9 million are going to be related to personnel costs,” Brosche said.

In 2024, Deegan negotiated big pay raises with the police and firefighters unions in their collective bargaining agreement, which resulted in multiyear increases for the departments’ employees.  

Police and fire pension cost increases also are a factor. Collectively, the city’s expenses for the retirement plans will rise by $7.98 million in the next fiscal year — that’s $209.38 million up from $201.39 million.

Big budget requests

The requests presented Wednesday are not the final budget numbers, and the totals could go up or down before Deegan pitches her spending plan to City Council. City lawmakers also will have any opportunity to make changes during budget hearings in August before a final vote at the end of September.

A budget breakdown from the Sheriff’s Office shows the cost for correctional services is expected to grow by $11.86 million. 

In addition to salaries and other employee benefits, the Sheriff’s Office says it needs $3.65 million for contractual increases linked to security guards working with inmates at UF Health Shands and the Juvenile Assessment Center, inmate food service and health services.

There are also added costs related to body cameras and the move of the department’s administrative office from the Police Memorial Building on Bay Street to the Florida Blue office tower in Brooklyn.

The budget breakdown says the Sheriff’s Office will need $6.73 million for building rental and lease leases, “primarily due to a full year of the Florida Blue lease, as well as the movement of expenses related to the body-worn camera agreement and Shotspotter,” the document says.

The agency’s $675.9 million budget request does not include an additional $5.39 million in line items the Sheriff’s Office says it would like the mayor’s office to add. 

At the top of that priority list is $1.627 million annually for a warehouse lease for property and evidence, forfeiture and special teams.

“Public safety is certainly at the top of the list in terms of consideration if we have the capacity to include these (enhancements),” Brosche said.

At Fire and Rescue, in addition to salaries, the fire department will see new fleet and equipment expenses with the expected opening of Fire State 78 at the end of 2027 or in early 2028, she said.

Property tax referendum

Like her predecessor, Mayor Lenny Curry, Deegan has increased public safety spending in all of her annual budgets. The administration is making final budget decisions now and Deegan will present her budget to the City Council in July.

Deegan has made police and fire funding a stated priority since she was elected in 2023. That as there’s been pressure by local activists to reform or reduce spending at the Sheriff’s Office. 

If these budget requests make it through unaltered, Deegan will have increased Sheriff’s Office spending by about $90 million from her first budget in 2023. 

Deegan administration officials say the property tax cut referendum set for the November ballot has not been a factor while drafting this year’s city budget. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to increase Florida’s homestead property tax exemption to $250,000 by 2028, if approved by voters, could cost the city more than $300 million per year.

Those revenue losses would not take effect until the 2027-28 budget year. Phil Perry, the city’s chief communications officer, said there wasn’t any conversation with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office or Jacksonville Fire and Rescue about the property tax referendum for this budget. 

“We’re not planning to present any budget that takes into account what voters may or may not do in November,” Perry told Jacksonville Today. “We’re going to present a budget that makes the investments that the city needs to keep our momentum.”