It's a circus @ the council tonight!

[tufsu1]

and as much as this pains me to say....you are correct CS

[CS Foltz]

Thanks tufsu..............I do try hard!

[CS Foltz]

Since no one has seen fit to show just which Councilperson voted and how.......Let me help you out! Those that voted "YES" -D. Brown, R. Brown, Corrigan, Fussel,Gaffney,Holts,Hyde,Jones,Joost,Shad and Webb. Those that voted "NO" -Bishop,Clark,Crescimbeni,Johnson,Lee,Redman and Yarborough! I don't know about you people, but I will not forget this! I cheated............I wrote it down and put this list where I can find it!

[cityimrov]

I'm new and super naive to this discussion.  I have not looked at the budget so I'm just taking this out of nowhere and hoping it has something to do with this discussion. 

Now is not the time to cut spending.  That would be a dumb idea!  All the very wealthy people follow this simple advice "Buy Low, Sell High". 

Everything now is cheap, if not dirt cheap!  Companies and people are desperate for work.  If we have a large infrastructure project, now is a great time to build it!  If we need to upgrade things, now is a great time to do so!  Commuter trains?  Since nobody is building them, now is a great time to buy them!  Companies are desperate for business!  Need a department that we never could before?  Start it now!  Hire people when they are willing to work for lower salaries! 

Use all that money we've been saving from the "good days".  Use that extra surplus cash (not the hurricane emergency fund or something similar but that extra cash earned during the boom) now!  It's what smart extremely wealthy people do with their money they made during the good times!  They buy when stuff is cheap and earn cash when stuff is expensive! 

The only thing that would make turn this idea into a disaster is if we somehow have no money saved up and are in major debt but I'm sure we as a city can't be that dumb, right?

[hillary supporter]

Since no one has seen fit to show just which Councilperson voted and how.......Let me help you out! Those that voted "YES" -D. Brown, R. Brown, Corrigan, Fussel,Gaffney,Holts,Hyde,Jones,Joost,Shad and Webb. Those that voted "NO" -Bishop,Clark,Crescimbeni,Johnson,Lee,Redman and Yarborough! I don't know about you people, but I will not forget this! I cheated............I wrote it down and put this list where I can find it!

Glorious Johnson for mayor, YEAH!

[hillary supporter]

Why not make churches pay a 10th or some other fraction of their property taxes? There is an absurd number of churches in jacksonville. FBC owns almost 70 million in property downtown. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's?

thats a very strong point! Its unlawful to tax churches, so perhaps last night was a price the people of Jacksonville have to pay.

[tufsu1]

Glorious Johnson for mayor, YEAH!

yeah...who needs a Mayor who is willing to make the tough decisions...when you can have someone opposed to raising taxes and opposed to cutting spending!

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Why not make churches pay a 10th or some other fraction of their property taxes? There is an absurd number of churches in jacksonville. FBC owns almost 70 million in property downtown. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's?

thats a very strong point! Its unlawful to tax churches, so perhaps last night was a price the people of Jacksonville have to pay.

Heard some info on the street that sort of pertains to this:  FBC owns a ton of property downtown, approx 12 entire city blocks.  BUT - parts of FBC are 'for-profit' and that percentage of the church DOES pay taxes.  I can't verify the truth to that statement nor would I even begin to speculate of the % that is for profit, but it came from a reliable source inside the church's finance committee so I have no reason not to believe it.

[newzgrrl]

The City Council meeting was indeed fascinating. I was there until 3 a.m. and back again at 11 on Wednesday.

It was just precious of Clay Yarborough to propose 14 amendments to the budget on the floor. When Jack Webb stopped him on the fourth to ask that he consolidate his amendments, bless his heart, he didn't consolidate anything.

Four hours of public hearing would try the patience of any reasonable person. The frequent demonstrations early on didn't help and Jack Webb threatened to have the room cleared.

Jon Heymann of Communities in Schools gave a resounding address asking the council not to disregard the months of commentary during the budget workshops and finance committee meetings in light of the loud and numerous calls not to increase taxes that were concentrated on Tuesday. Unfortunately, a lot of folks misinterpreted those and similar remarks to mean that comments are not welcome at a public hearing. Of course they are ... but public hearings aren't the only time to make comments.

Denise Lee spent an awful lot of time talking about those 15 firefighters. She even took a good five minutes after the vote Wednesday afternoon, when other councilmembers congratulated themselves on their fine work, to make the point again that 15 firefighters were her greatest concern. "Promises made, promises broken," yes, but what if those 15 firefighters leave Jacksonville in five or 10 years because there is no quality of life? And what of all the others who would leave? Then City Council raises the millage again just to keep up with further loss of revenue ...

We need a long-term solution with long-term vision. No more plans that solve the problems only right in front of us.