Live Blogging from City Council: Mobility Fee Moratorium

[TheCat]

Dr. Wayne Wood is up to the podium. He commends the council for their decision Ahmed. He cringes at the commentary from other residents about Ahmed. He's dismayed at the lack of civility and the easily believed bumper sticker statements from people in our community.

He continues that Jacksonville is trying to be a first tier city and the council's voice is the first one heard.

[dougskiles]

I was only able to stay until 6:30, so missed the public comment.  Although I don't think any on the council are confused as to my position on the issue.  I do plan on going to TEUS committee next week, which is where I am told the real action will happen.

I had some interesting conversations with some of the sticker wearing crowd before the meeting.  The first was with the girl handing them out.  I asked her what bill 94 was about.  She said she didn't know, she was just told to come hand them out.  She works for the NE Florida Builders Association.

The second was with a guy near the back of the room.  He was trying to build a small restaurant somewhere way out in the "middle of nowhere" and received a fee calculation of $100k.  He said it wasn't fair that the new businesses have to shoulder the burden of this cost.  It should be spread out to everyone.  I said "like a general tax increase?"  He said "yes".  Then he said, "well no - we shouldn't raise taxes".  I said "then how are we going to pay for it?  He said "I don't know".

Exactly.  Nobody has the answer to that question who supports this bill.

[Ocklawaha]

Right you are Doug, check this out.

Imagine the moratorium passes for 3 more years, and imagine during that amount of time we get no more or no less waivers of the mobility fee then the total amount of waivers during the first year 'trial moratorium.'  This is how it cooks down:

Value of waivers issued for the past one-year moratorium - $27,000,000 one year.

Total value of waivers to be issued for 3 more years (assuming no changes +/- in our rate of growth) - $27,000,000 x 3 years =
$81,000,000 million dollars.

Add all four moratorium years together and you get - $108,000,000 million dollars.

Take $108,000,000 and divide by the current city population - 822,000

ANSWER - $131.38.  This represents an infrastructure tax to every man, woman and child in the city of $131.38, or $2,102.08 for a family of 4, for four years, which means we get a four year tax increase of $525.52 per year for our average family just to provide needed infrastructure.

[thelakelander]

I was only able to stay until 6:30, so missed the public comment.  Although I don't think any on the council are confused as to my position on the issue.  I do plan on going to TEUS committee next week, which is where I am told the real action will happen.

I'll have to put this meeting on my schedule.

[fieldafm]

He said it wasn't fair that the new businesses have to shoulder the burden of this cost.  It should be spread out to everyone. 

They say the same thing in Cuba, it's worked out well from what I've been told. 

[thelakelander]

^Well, after all these years, Eisenhower and JFK are long gone and Castro is still living large.  It worked out quite well for him.

[thelakelander]

Girvin will get worse.  Too bad there's no money for any of that stuff. As Dan Davis has already stated, that's all noise.

[thelakelander]

Wait a minute. I've been checking the live feed every once in a while.  Are these people complaining about new construction jobs destined for Girvin Road?  What is this noise, they speak of?

[fieldafm]

Yes Castro and his buddies have been living large while the country starves... So, the comparison is pretty fitting actually.  The City heads towards a fiscal cliff while a few developers use government subsidies to fatten their bottom line. 

[TheCat]

I loved Dan Davis' "If I see a crane in the sky I know someone is eating at a table" speech.

It sounds like a speech I made in my college speech class...

"every time I see a college kid with white powder on his/her nose I know that somewhere a dealer has escaped a low paying job and can now support their family."

[TheCat]

We are on to bill 89.

http://cityclts.coj.net/coj/COJBillList.asp?Bill=2013-0089

"Bill Summary: The bill appropriates $11,036,722.63 in debt service savings from bond refinancing to a Downtown Economic Development Fund ($9 million) and to the Countywide Economic Development Fund ($2,036,722.63) for use in stimulating economic development in the city. 

Background Information: The bill provides that expenditures from the Downtown Economic Development Fund shall be at the discretion and by the authorization of the Downtown Investment Authority board once a downtown redevelopment plan has been drafted by the DIA and approved by City Council.  Prior to that approval, any expenditures from the downtown fund must be approved by City Council, as must any appropriations of funds from the countywide fund at any time. 

Policy Impact Area: Economic development.

Fiscal Impact: The bill appropriates $11,036,722.63 in debt service savings from bond refinancing  to two economic development funds.  The Finance Department estimates that much smaller amounts of debt service savings will accrue in future years as a result of this refinancing."

[TheCat]

terry Lorince of DVI will speak on this bill. The current speaker says this is bull.  Terry says...

"Yes, things are starting to click. I support the mayor." Hey, she mentioned a survey "people think downtown is important."

Terri Lorince:
http://www.downtownjacksonville.org/DowntownVisionInc/StaffProfiles/Executive_Director.aspx

[thelakelander]

This should be good. A fight between the burbs and the mayor over spending $9 million downtown and $2 million on the rest of the city.

[thelakelander]

Wow. I'm surprised there were only two speakers. One for and one against.

[Bridges]

Here we go!