Jacksonville's political tax problem

June 22, 9:52 AMJacksonville City Hall ExaminerFrederick Matthews

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Jacksonville Florida is on the verge of an income crisis. Raising taxes is in order. The Florida Times-Union quotes lawyer and long-time public citizen Jim Rinaman as saying” The City Council didn’t have guts enough to do that, so we didn’t do it…”

Doing that would be going against a conservative-republican mantra which works well when one is running for office, but is not the kind of thing that forward looking statesmen would advocate.

Mayor John Peyton is to submit a budget to the19 member City council next month. It should be balanced. And it will be. The question is balanced by whose standard? Already, Chief of Staff and former railroad spokesman Adam Hollingsworth is raising the specter of cutting funding to parks and libraries while putting forth no viable solution to solving the long term police and fire pension problems.

Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee, helped by Governor Charlie Crist mandated, some two years ago that property taxes be reduced on the local level. The action, done with voter consent via a referendum, has aggravated counties throughout the state, none of whom could have anticipated the recession that hit the entire country last year.

What will be interesting to see is how long, conservative, republican lawmakers on the local and state level will cling to the lie that lower taxes and cut services such as garbage, libraries, park hours and rising utility costs are good for their constituents.

Six years ago, Mayor Peyton came up with a plan that invested millions of taxpayer dollars into private sector investment schemes that would net the city a huge profit. He was wrong. Imagine what would have happened to those on Social Security, if then- President George Bush’s suggestion had been followed to invest that money in the stock market?

The Mayor has a well intended $31 million Jacksonville Journey plan being funded now. Unfortunately, where the revenues are coming from to keep funding it is the problem. Peyton has already increased fees in several areas. His office is now considering whether to increase property taxes next year. That would be breaking a political promise made by politicians in Tallahassee. It would also enrage a few not so civic minded taxpayers in Duval County.

But it would be the right thing to do.