Jax Mayoral Candidates Split on Tax Increase

[Cheshire Cat]

Jacksonville voters will have a clear-cut choice when they cast ballots in the March 24 election on the bread-and-butter issue of taxes and spending.

Mayor Alvin Brown is running for re-election on a repeat of his pledge against tax increases, saying the ongoing business recovery will generate enough revenue for improvements in the city.

Lenny Curry, a business owner and former Florida Republican Party chairman, also makes his position clear, saying he's not supporting a tax increase and rapping Brown in the same breath as untrustworthy in managing the city's finances.

City Councilman Bill Bishop — who voted for a tax increase two years ago that averted deep cuts in everyday city services — is taking a different stance.

"I think anybody at this point in the game who makes a no-new-taxes pledge is choosing to be deliberately uninformed," Bishop said. "The revenue side of the city is in trouble for a lot of reasons. Nobody likes to pay more taxes. I don't like to pay more taxes."

He said the choice faced by the community is that based on the current tax rates, revenue isn't rising fast enough to "grow our way out of the problem" and that will make Jacksonville a less attractive place to live.

"There is nothing else to cut and still maintain the services we do," Bishop said. "We can decide we don't want something. We can shut libraries down, we can shut parks down if we don't want to raise taxes. I personally don't believe that's responsible because we're going to impact in a great way the quality of life in our city."

Curry and Brown say the answer is business growth because a strengthening economy will generate enough revenue without raising tax rates.

"I'm not going to support a tax increase, particularly at a time when there's gross mismanagement of the city's tax dollars," Curry said. "Taxpayers do not trust their government."

He said a special City Council committee led by Councilwoman Lori Boyer has found millions of dollars sitting in accounts that could be used for improving city services. Curry, who owns an accounting firm, said that as mayor, he would do a 90-day "emergency audit" that drills down deeper than the usual audits done of city government.

"The taxpayers need to know how their money is being managed and spent," he said.

Brown said the city has refinanced debt to save money in the long run, and he's worked closely with the private sector to market Jacksonville being "open for business.

For full article click link:  http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-02-18/story/mayoral-candidates-split-whether-tax-increases-are-needed-improve

[Charles Hunter]

This is why Bill Bishop should be Mayor, over the other two:

City Councilman Bill Bishop — who voted for a tax increase two years ago that averted deep cuts in everyday city services — is taking a different stance.

"I think anybody at this point in the game who makes a no-new-taxes pledge is choosing to be deliberately uninformed," Bishop said. "The revenue side of the city is in trouble for a lot of reasons. Nobody likes to pay more taxes. I don't like to pay more taxes."

He said the choice faced by the community is that based on the current tax rates, revenue isn't rising fast enough to "grow our way out of the problem" and that will make Jacksonville a less attractive place to live.

And is also probably why he won't be elected.

Does this mean that Curry is promising mismanagement during his entire term?

"I'm not going to support a tax increase, particularly at a time when there's gross mismanagement of the city's tax dollars," Curry said. "Taxpayers do not trust their government."