Curry Budget Takes $4.6 Million from Downtown Redevelopment

[Bridges]

Isn't this the kind of thing that saw downtown stagnate for years?  Raiding the old TIF for other projects?

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2016-08-11/story/budget-review-calls-attention-46-million-would-be-lost-downtown

Jacksonville City Council members learned Thursday that Mayor Lenny Curry's proposed budget will take $4.6 million from a pool of money that's required to be spent on downtown redevelopment, an initiative that's seen intermittent progress in recent years but has failed to gain long-term momentum.

....

The money comes from a special redevelopment district that sets aside property tax revenue from downtown property to pay for redevelopment efforts in the area. The $4.6 million was leftover funding from last year that wasn't spent.

[thelakelander]

It's one thing to not fund. It's another to raid. They need to find the $4.6 million from somewhere else. What's the point of having a TIF if you're going to raid the cash it generates?

[acme54321]

What's the point of the TIF if they aren't allocating the money to anything?  4.6 million could do some good DT.

[Bill Hoff]

I believe the $4.6 mill is required to be taken back, due to the way the legislation was written. However, per Gulliford, City Council will probably tweak it so that the $4.6 will be taken from the projected surplus, instead.

Read that on WJCT.

[vicupstate]

The Mayor's Office wasn't aware of the requirement and planned to use the money in next year's budget, said Sam Mousa, the city's chief administrative officer.

I can believe Curry wasn't aware of the requirement, but I have a hard time believing Sam Mousa wasn't.

[mtraininjax]

Despite the committee's concerns, the hiccup didn't appear to shake their confidence in Curry's budget or staff, a problem that beleaguered former Mayor Alvin Brown's efforts to pass several of his proposed budgets.

Seems the only one with ANY issues with Curry is MMR......maybe Stephen, depends on the day and the story......

Sounds like Crescimbeni would like to drive another stake into Hemming Park and pull the funding for elsewhere, but I believe cooler heads will prevail in Boyer, the President and Brosche, the Chair of the Finance Committee.

This would seriously kill downtown development......... But if we raise the Mill rate, we would have plenty of money for lots of things that Crescimbeni complains about around the city.....

[benmarcus]

Pretty funny to me that someone who ran on being an accountant clearly didn't check relevant ordinances. His pattern seems to go for the easiest route possible without doing his due diligence on what he proposes. Yet another reason we shouldn't "trust him" on the pension tax.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Let me get this straight...

The same city council that is absolutely ripping FOHP about 'mis-appropriating' dedicated funds are taking their time to try and validate the mayor using dedicated funds for something other than what the money was set aside for as long as they find a revenue stream to replace the missing money??

You can't even make this shit up. 

[TheCat]

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=548128


mistakenly sweeps $4.6M from DIA; council to decide if that stands
Friday, August 12, 11:43 AM EDT
By David Chapman, Staff Writer

The first day of City Council budget reviews often have "uh-oh" moments.
That is, surprises — sometimes worth millions of dollars — that require members to make tough decisions on the city's spending plan.

Council members are facing one early that could either end up taking several million dollars away from future Downtown development or leaving that same size hole in the budget.

Mayor Lenny Curry's team swept $4.6 million in unused Downtown Community Redevelopment Area funding from the end of fiscal 2015 to balance next year's budget. Pulling year-end funds from it and other such redevelopment areas across the city is required by state law.

However, council members and former Mayor Alvin Brown approved a local ordinance that placed the Downtown redevelopment money into a designated fund for the Downtown Investment Authority.

"We were unaware of that," said Sam Mousa, Curry's chief administrative officer who helped craft the mayor's spending plan.

Mousa told the council Finance Committee on Thursday the decision was not intentional or malicious toward Downtown. Instead, it was an "honest oversight" that happened in the administration's "overzealousness" in budget-making.

And when Mousa was told days after Curry presented his budget to council, he said it was an "uh-oh."

Now, council members will have to make a decision: Should they waive the ordinance code and sweep the unused Downtown funding? Or do they leave it and find the $4.6 million elsewhere in city coffers?

There could be an option for the latter that wouldn't pull from other already budgeted programs and services.

Council members could use money from the city's fund balance, reserves of sorts that it keeps available. With a budget of Jacksonville's size, a healthy reserve would be $50 million to $70 million. The latest projections have it at about $78 million.

It's also anticipated to grow as much as $20 million more as revenue this year is higher and expenses are lower than anticipated. However, that's based on third-quarter projections with another three months to go.

While Mousa didn't advocate council take a position on the sweep it or keep it question, pulling from that fund balance would still leave it "healthy."

Going that direction might be the way council members go, as several expressed a desire Thursday to leave the Downtown funds in place.

"The right thing is to come up with $4 million bucks," said Bill Gulliford, who called it "the courage to do what's right."

Katrina Brown said she believed the money should stay in the redevelopment area, as money needs to be in place to help improve the urban core.

The DIA would like to keep the money for projects as they come online, said board chair Jim Bailey. He said that could range from the JEA generating site to the Laura Street Trio to even Hemming Park, once the administration and council decide on its future.

Bailey said he doesn't see the situation as being adversarial and, as it always does, DIA will work the administration and council on the issue.

"The DIA is prepared to assist with a solution, but we aren't prepared to be the solution," said Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record.

The redevelopment areas pull from increases in property taxes within that defined area for the purpose of being used there.

When generated revenue can't cover debt service, however, the money to balance it each year comes from the city's general fund.

Since 2011, the general fund has provided $15.7 million to the Downtown redevelopment area, council members were told Thursday.

The $4.6 million in question was left over as of Sept. 30, 2015.

It will be a decision for a future budget review hearing, as members deferred the issue until they could be addressed by council President Lori Boyer, who discovered the situation

She already has a meeting dedicated to redevelopment areas planned for Sept. 23.

Finance members did end up approving some items Thursday, including the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office budget that includes 40 officers and 40 community service officers next year.

Budget hearings continue today and will take place twice a week until the end of August.

dchapman@jaxdailyrecord.com

@writerchapman

(904) 356-2466

[mtraininjax]

Im very interested in what the supporters of this terrible mayor who kept on message that he would be so much better for downtown that Brown have to say about this.

Jacksonville is a big city with a lot of needs, so the message is to do what is right for all of the City of Jacksonville.

City Council will fix this mess, just like they fixed the messes that Brown left them with his leadership. At least Curry did not raid JEA for all their cash, which would have been a huge issue, not only in Jax, but also on Wall Street.

Council will fix this, as most everyone on the council, will not be able to get a single vote from anyone downtown in the future, all 10,000 of them. 

[strider]

What is laughable is anyone thinking Brown and City Council together was any better than Curry and City Council.  It was a change, one that could have been better but instead is really no worse. Based on how he is doing thus far, we will need to make a change again in a few years.

City Council is unlikely to fix anything, just as the Pension Sales tax is not fixing anything, just kicking that can down the road some more.  The problem is, eventually the can will get too big to kick anywhere and we will have to pay the piper.

But this thread is not about the pension, but rather about how a city administration, either purposefully or accidentally, is trying to misappropriate funds.  Since  we have been told there is proof that the Chief of Staff has done it in the past, it is not much of a stretch that this was planned and that City Council will allow it to happen, like they allow so many other inappropriate acts to happen without anyone even considering correcting them.

[JaGoaT]

Who voted for this guy?

[coredumped]

Not me! When he first took office I was actually impressed, but now we see is true colors showing.

[vicupstate]

It was a change, one that could have been better but instead is really no worse. Based on how he is doing thus far, we will need to make a change again in a few years.

Given the fact that he was adamant about not raising taxes, and knowing that without a tax increase the pension issue would not be resolved, common sense and mathematics dictated this or something close to it would happen.  Brown was adamant about not raising taxes too, but as a Mayor in his final term, it was more likely that he would cave on that.  Even if he didn't, at least he would be replaced in four years and the option of a better choice was possible at that time.  As an incumbent in the majority party, with a vast number of supporters and contributors at his back, you can count on Curry being Mayor for another seven years. It was on that basis that I supported Brown over Curry. I hope at some point Curry will actual try to lead instead of laying the groundwork for his next office.   

[icarus]

I personally hope Lori Boyer steps up to the plate on this one.  I'm running out of fingers thinking of the pending or proposed projects $4.6 million could be applied against downtown.

I think I have an even bigger issue that this money is required to be spent and sat in an account for the year with so many worthy things it could be spent on.  Who is driving the bus?