City Wants Fundraising Ideas From YOU!

[gradco2004]

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2008-12-29/have_an_idea_to_raise_cash_city_is_listening

Have an idea to raise cash? City is listening
Jacksonville is scrambling for ideas for new revenue, but so far has none.

That could be the tune, more of a folksy blues harmony about a city struggling with unemployment and violent crime.

The refrain, perhaps a question: Where's the money coming from?

Jacksonville could boost its coffers by starting a glee club and charging admission at the Florida Theatre.

At least that was a half-joking suggestion made during a meeting of the Long Term Fiscal Health Committee, a subsidiary of the city's watchdog Taxation, Revenue and Utilization of Expenditures Commission.

Before serious budget planning takes shape within the next few months, the city's think tanks and public officials are starting to brainstorm ways to generate more money without raising taxes.

The goal is to preserve, maybe even boost, quality of life without smacking residents too hard in the wallet.

It's not easy, said Charles "Skip" Cramer, who heads Jacksonville Community Council Inc., a nonprofit organization that set out on a long-range city finance study in October. For one, the city needs more money at a time many households could stand to save a few dollars of their own.

"Nobody has presented us with 'let's all go buy one lottery ticket and give it back to the government.' There's no silver bullet," Cramer said. "Right now we have no brand new ideas."

Cramer said he's expecting to spend the next several years pitching ideas to City Hall.

City budget cycles run from October to September, meaning Jacksonville is about three months into its 2009 fiscal year. Mayor John Peyton said he's already bracing for next year to be a challenge.

"It's beyond bake sales and car washes. We're beyond counting paper clips and disposing of office coffee. We're talking major, major dollars," the mayor said.

After some friction among city officials over raising taxes last year, the $972.3 million budget passed with no property tax increase. Spending grew by a minimal 1.8 percent, the lowest increase since 1991.

Among the city's financial dilemmas: Jacksonville's unemployment rate just hit its highest level in 16 years, meaning people have less disposable income. That hurts sales tax collections. Statewide property tax reform also sliced millions of dollars from this year's revenue expectations.

Part of the problem is that Jacksonville needs to get out of the mentality that it can pay for anything so long as it continues to grow, said Joe Andrews, who chairs the Long Term Fiscal Health Committee. That's especially true now as the housing market slumps, he added.

Cramer explained that the problem is built upon itself. Businesses are enticed by cheap taxes. People take the jobs, typically making enough to get by, but don't make quite the money they could in other areas. So raising taxes could dissuade those companies and help turn working people into the working poor.

"We have built a city based on real bargains," Cramer said. "We've used that as a selling point."

The idea that taxes could ruffle voters is another issue. Take Peyton's anti-crime plan, Cramer said. Before it passed, the funding woes were discussed widely with city business people. Many of them were for raising taxes. The City Council, which would have to approve the increase, wasn't.

"Jacksonville Journey is a classic example. Leadership said raise taxes, to quit selling Jacksonville on the cheap," Cramer said. "But the political will was not there."

Jacksonville has tried to raise money without raising property taxes before. The city's stormwater and solid waste fees are an example. But city records the Times-Union requested last week show a collection rate of about 71 percent.

That means, until people pay up, the city is about $7.5 million short of where it could be.

That's also a reason Peyton said financial planners have to be careful. Any additional expense could be the breaking point for residents living paycheck to paycheck. Then, the city gets nothing.

"We have a lot of families struggling," he said.

david.hunt@jacksonville.com,

(904) 359-4025

[Keith-N-Jax]

City is listening now that's a new one. Well one thing that should be thought of right away is all the unused and used property the city owns. Sell and get those properties on the tax role. Get all government buildings off the river front and sell. Stop wasting money and spending money on small pocket parks. Sorry for this one, but reduce city staff members, many are doing nothing but collecting a paycheck.From what we have seen over the last few years, what has been accomplished with all these different bodies ie DVI, DRC and so on. Have one group to do it all. Also if your going to spend tax payers money traveling to other cities to learn from them lets see some progress then . Better yet, just look on here and we all save.

[jbm32206]

Couldn't agree more...instead of asking people how to raise money, let's talk about where we can cut spending. Reducing staff, reducing expenditures on crap like the pocket parks, no-bid contracts, and the list can go on....

[gatorback]

A toll on JTB.  That toll should be .75 cents each way.  But, it should be cashless, just using a tag, so there are no humans.  And if you dont have cash, dont worry, just mail the car owner the bill--with an extra $2.50 processing fee. I am sure there is some company that would put in the infastructure for a portion of the revenue...like those maggots running the red light cameras.

[copperfiend]

Sell the land the Landing is on?

[gatorback]

Toll express lanes ease traffic on urban highways

/quote]

MIAMI â€" Attorney David Kubiliun is a typical South Floridian: He lives in a suburb, works in downtown Miami and spends several hours a week sitting in maddening traffic on Interstate 95.

Earlier this year, his 14-mile slog home took 50 minutes out of his day, if there weren't any accidents. "It was murder," he said.

But his evening commute recently got a whole lot better â€" for a price. Drivers like him can pay anywhere from 25 cents to $6.20 to drive in a new express lane for six miles at or above 45 to 50 mph, guaranteed.

Now Kubiliun gets home in 20 minutes.

"That thing's a godsend," he said. "I can even make it to my kid's baseball practice."

These High Occupancy Toll lanes â€" or HOT lanes â€" are praised by urban planners, environmentalists and many drivers. From I-10 in Houston to I-15 in Salt Lake City, drivers can pay extra to zip past traffic stuck in the slower "local" lanes. HOT lanes also are being added in northern Virginia.

They've been criticized by some as "Lexus Lanes" because of the cost, but in Miami and other cities, it's not just the drivers with fat wallets who can use them: Carpoolers, motorcyclists, buses and hybrid owners drive for free.

"It's one of several huge trends in urban highway transportation," said Tyler Duvall,

[thelakelander]

The new HOT lanes on I-95 in Miami.  I must say, it was nice being able to bypass the congestion in the regular lanes.

[Lunican]

Five City-Owned Properties that Should be Sold Now!

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/769/

[Charles Hunter]

A toll on JTB.  That toll should be .75 cents each way.  But, it should be cashless, just using a tag, so there are no humans.  And if you dont have cash, dont worry, just mail the car owner the bill--with an extra $2.50 processing fee. I am sure there is some company that would put in the infastructure for a portion of the revenue...like those maggots running the red light cameras.

$2.50 processing fee?  On the tollways around Orlando, they have some of those toll booths without people - the "fee" for not having one of those toll thingys is $100 - photo enforced.

[ProjectMaximus]

A toll on JTB.  That toll should be .75 cents each way.  But, it should be cashless, just using a tag, so there are no humans.  And if you dont have cash, dont worry, just mail the car owner the bill--with an extra $2.50 processing fee. I am sure there is some company that would put in the infastructure for a portion of the revenue...like those maggots running the red light cameras.

$2.50 processing fee?  On the tollways around Orlando, they have some of those toll booths without people - the "fee" for not having one of those toll thingys is $100 - photo enforced.

ive been told you can get away with it twice on warnings, although I've never tried.

[ProjectMaximus]

"Quit selling Jax on the cheap."

Hmmm, what else do our progressive leaders see as a selling point?

[gatorback]

100??? So, if you are from out of town and get stuck in the wrong lane you pay 100?  We got in the wrong lane in Houston and could not stop and back up so we ran it.  Are you saying do that or pay 100?  I am just saying in Austin you get a bill in the mail for the mix up.  If you dont pay and or are one that just abuses the policy then you could get picked up for a misdaminer.

[Charles Hunter]

According to the article in today's TU, you get a bill in the mail for whatever the toll would be.  If you don't pay it within a certain time (21 days?), then you get the $100 civil violation.  So, there is allowance for "oops".

[tufsu1]

Couldn't agree more...instead of asking people how to raise money, let's talk about where we can cut spending. Reducing staff, reducing expenditures on crap like the pocket parks, no-bid contracts, and the list can go on....

the problem with that idea is something that makes sense to you or me doesn't to soemone else....many people think the Main Street pocket park was a nice enhancement....and on the flip side, most people in Jacksonville probabaly wouldn't want to spend more money on transit!

[thelakelander]

^This is why its important to use the transit dollars we already have wisely.  We're sitting on $100 million.  That's more than enough to get something decent up and running with or without the FTA initially.

It also further validates the importance of adding additional transit funding requests to the list for Obama's stimulus program.  Everyone knows good and well that it will snow in hell before this city shifts more local dollars to or raises taxes for transit.  The opportunity we have now to invest in mass transit is probably the best we'll have in the next decade.