Mayor Curry's political blackmail of ICARE and their community initiatives

[Trumandem]

I wanted to take this opportunity to report on Mayor Curry's meeting with ICARE Nehemiah this past Monday, April 11th at the Abyssinia Assembly Church in Northwest Jacksonville.  It is too long to post here so I'd like to post a link to my blog where you can read it in its entirety on how Mayor Curry, a reluctant participant at the meeting, used the pension issue crisis as political blackmail for support of any community initiatives pushed by the ICARE community.  It did not go down well and I have an explanation why.  See it here at http://bit.ly/23t0dyU

[sheclown]

I heard the leaders discuss this on Melissa Ross this morning.  Seems like they had excellent points regarding the financial justification for the day center & prisoner re-entry programs, but the mayor turned the discussion to the pension crisis.

[spuwho]

The T-U is reporting that Curry notified the audience he sympathized with their requests, but he was shooting straight when he said that the cash drain of the pension has to be dealt with before we start making commitments to services again.

Ron Littlepage said he didnt doubt Curry's urgency, but wondered if the solution was more politically driven. He didnt hold back on John Delaney and those who came after.  Wonders why no one wants to promote a more near term solution instead of waiting. Says Curry will have to explain how starting a tax in the future is somehow different than starting a new tax now.

Its a good question and one Curry needs to answer intelligently, otherwise it will fall in deaf ears.