On Wednesday, the City Council Finance Committee wrapped up their hearings on the budget with a parting shot to the Jacksonville that so many of us aspire to.  Before we lay all of the blame at their feet, it's only fair to mention that both of Jacksonville's branches of government--legislative and executive--were quite complicit in this final action.

Speaking before the Finance Committee, Library Director Barbara Gubbin said that the Mayor's budget proposal and the additional 3% in cuts ordered by the Committee had left her no choice other than slashing hours and cutting staff.  As a result, Gubbin said, the Duval County Public Library would cut 21 positions and reduce hours at six locations, all of which are in north and northwest Jacksonville--predominantly lower-income neighborhoods.  Some of the branches will now only be open four hours a day, others five.  In all, there will be 130 fewer hours of library access for a very concentrated area of Jacksonville.

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Nearly a decade ago, when voters passed the Better Jacksonville Plan, city officials were excited about what the prospects of a new libraries, particularly the new Downtown Library, would do for Jacksonville.  "We're hoping to be a catalyst for growth," Sylvia Cornell told The Library Journal in 2001, "That is our plan. We have a great riverfront in Jacksonville, and there are condominiums and more being built."

Now, eight years after that interview, we know that many of those dreams didn't pan out.  Some never made it past the architectural drawing board, some stand half vacant and some stand half built and abandoned.  The downtown library; however, is the element that Jacksonville followed through on---at least the construction of it.  Dollars spent to fund it, and the other branches of the Jacksonville Public Library system, have been cut year after year after year.  Despite the fact that the Downtown Library can be found packed on nearly any Sunday afternoon, Sunday hours have been eliminated at nearly all of the branches locations.  Now, Jacksonville stands ready to further decimate public library funding by reducing hours in low-income communities.

Other cities have actually used libraries as the centerpiece of rebuilding impoverished areas.  In that same Library Journal interview, the head of Nashville's Library System told the magazine that Nashville intended to use their new main library and five new branches to "be the community's foundation."

City Councilman Johnny Gaffney, whose districts includes several of the neighborhoods that will be affected by library cutbacks, expressed disbelief and frustration with City Government.  Stunned that hours were being cut during the hours that school children would be free to use the libraries, Gaffney announced his intention to fight the cuts.  Arguing that the branches affected were in communities with the most need for library services, he lashed out in an interview with The Florida Times-Union.  "I'm not going to have this on my shoulders, because our kids don't have accessibility to our libraries."

Perhaps the most disappointing element of this entire budget process is that the Finance Committee managed to push through all of these cuts, many of which will have a disproportionate impact on Jacksonville's children and lower-income residents, without sacrificing any of their own benefits.  Their pensions remain intact and each Council member will retain an aide.  No AMIO reform was undertaken to shrink that ballooning expenditure and the City Council President will still draw an additional $15,000 in salary.

Priorities, priorities...

In keeping with our pledge to break down some of the budget numbers, the Mayor's proposed budget for Recreation & Community Services included:

Total Department Expenditures: $51,378,004
Salaries & Wages: $8,499,695
Special Pay: $157,270
Overtime: $441,943
Total Salaries & Benefits: $14,387,644 (or 28% of the Department's Total Expenditures)
Travel & Per Diem: $131,773
Professional Services: $6,130,734
Other Contractual Services: $1,486,684

Three of the Divisions within Recreation & Community Services saw a recommended decrease in their budget and three saw an increase. Veteran & Disabled Services saw a recommended 10% increase, but the overall Department was recommended to receive a 2.9% cut.

Many of the leaders of Jacksonville's non-profit community gathered in the City Hall Atrium Tuesday afternoon to present a visual display of the services that they provide to the citizens of Jacksonville.  They were there to promote the website they have launched, igetitjax.com, that seeks to corral citizen support to urge Jacksonville's City Council to continue the city's support of non-profits that provide essential services to the community.

The Jacksonville City Council's Finance Committee moved to close the city's $50 million deficit on Thursday by proposing a 3% across the board cut for every city department.  This cut, according to The Times-Union, would come on top of the 5% cut already ordered by Mayor John Peyton.  Of course, with the general fund accounts for most departments having already been drained over the past few years, this means that there will likely be few places for the cuts to come from.  The most likely source?  City employee salaries.

The salaries of city employees are a rather tricky matter.  While the Council may have ordered 3% cuts (which, when combined with the Mayor's proposed cuts will equal 8%), they have no authority to force salary cuts for union employees.  For any cuts in the salaries of city union employees, the Council---like the Mayor---is completely dependent on future negotiations with the unions.  Because union employees comprise a significant portion of city employees, it is entirely likely that the brunt of department cuts will be born by rather small percentage of individuals.

Sheriff John Rutherford isn't buying the Council's "solution."  A long-time employee of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Rutherford is understandably sympathetic towards city employees.  “[T]hey want to take it out of the employees’ pockets,” he said. “It is wrong.”

Non-union civil service employees should not be unfairly punished for the city's financial problems.  They didn't create them and they should not be forced to bear the brunt of any attempts to right them.

I wanted to share briefly some of the things that I intend to cover on JaxPoliticsOnline.com over the next seven weeks.  As most residents of Jacksonville are aware, the City is entering what will likely be one of the most contentious budget battles in recent memory.  With the Council's rejection of the Mayor's proposed 12% increase in the city's millage rate, lawmakers are now faced with the incredibly daunting task of slicing up to $50 million out of the city's budget.  And, as many are likely to find rather quickly, it's much easier to campaign against a tax increase than to identify significant items in the budget that can be cut without negatively impacting some segment of the population.

Over the next several weeks I hope to share some of the ideas that I have on areas where the City could realize savings.  At the same time, I intend to highlight some of the areas where taxpayer dollars are the crucial component in delivering services that many of our residents desperately need.  I also intend to discuss areas where taxpayer dollars are the key link in securing other private, state and federal dollars to ensure Jacksonville is a community that we can all be proud of.

As the City Council begins to enter this intense budget-setting period, it's my hope that they will pause to carefully consider the long-term ramifications of each decision they make.  At the end of the day, they will have to answer to the voting public as to whether or not their tenure has made Jacksonville a better place to live.

Jacksonville City Council President Richard Clark has created a new "budget suggestion" e-mail address to allow citizens to have input during the 2-month budget-setting process.

“As Jacksonville faces its most difficult budget in many years, it just seems to make sense to seek out as many good ideas as possible to help sharpen our focus and find every possible cost savings that may be available” said Clark.  “The general public and the business community have been tightening their belts and squeezing down expenses for more than a year now, and perhaps they can help us with ideas and strategies that have worked for them that might be applied to the City budget as well.  I look forward to seeing the public’s creative ideas.”

E-mail your suggestions to BudgetSuggestions@coj.net.