Mayor Curry's $1 billion budget includes money for more cops, millions more...

[Tacachale]

The mayor released this year's budget for vetting by City Council today. As expected, it's pretty spartan, largely due to the pension crisis. The total budget was $1.18 billion, while $280 million went into paying pension debt - that's over 25% of the budget going to pay down debt.

The big changes over previous years include 40 more police and 40 Community Service Officer positions (on top of the 40 cops and 40 CSOs under last year's budget) as well as a big $83 million allocation for capital projects.

Mayor Lenny Curry's $1 billion budget includes money for more cops, millions more for roadwork, parks and libraries
By Nate Monroe and Christopher Hong Mon, Jul 18, 2016 @ 11:24 am | updated Mon, Jul 18, 2016 @ 2:13 pm

Mayor Lenny Curry on Monday doubled down on the law-and-order platform that got him elected one year ago, delivering a $1.18 billion city spending plan that would hire 40 more police officers even as he says the city is increasingly constrained by soaring annual pension costs and must deny extra money for other services. Curry's budget sets aside about $4.5 million to allow Sheriff Mike Williams to hire and equip those additional deputies as well as 40 community service officers, civilians empowered to handle minor call-outs such as traffic accidents so police officers can concentrate on more serious crimes.

His proposal also includes an $83.3 million capital budget — the largest such allocation in six years — that would pay for a range of maintenance and upgrades: $1 million in library maintenance and improvements, $2.25 million for parks and recreation projects, $12 million for roadway resurfacing, $2.5 million in sidewalk construction and repair, millions more in drainage improvements throughout the city and $11.5 million to expand the Trail Ridge Landfill.

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The proposed budget does not call for a property tax increase — taxes would remain at 11.4419 mills — but the city is projected to reap about a $28 million windfall because property values are going up.

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http://jacksonville.com/news/2016-07-18/story/mayor-lenny-currys-1-billion-budget-includes-money-more-cops-millions-more

Other notable developments include:

*No major cuts; much of the new spending is coming from increased property revenues, investments and streamlining.
*No new money for downtown investment projects; specifically mentioned are the Laura Street Trio, the Shipyards and Berkman.
*$250,000 for Friends of Hemming Park, which is half of what they requested, but a lot more than some wanted them to get.
*$2.7 million to replace the 911 system, $14 million for police cruisers and $7.5 for fire vehicles.
*Another $15 million from JEA for a septic tank phaseout program.
*$3.5 million for pension reserve account as a (small) cushion in case the pension referendum doesn't pass. It would be put to other things if the referendum passes.

All told, with pension costs continuing to balloon, it's impressive that we got by without major cuts or tax increases. That will change this year, as we will either pass the sales tax referendum, get a property tax hike, or face serious cuts. Or looking at it another way, it's clear our city finances would be doing pretty well but for the pension crisis; we'd have a lot more money to put into real growth rather than treading water.

[MusicMan]

$14,000,000 for police cruisers? Is that for purchasing new?

[vicupstate]

I assume these 80 new LE positions will be hired under the existing pension system instead of a 401k or  an altered pension program?

[tufsu1]

$2.25 million for parks all over the city....compare that with the $35 million Tampa is spending on one park

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/tampa-to-launch-35-million-redevelopment-of-riverfront-park/2285761