Jacksonville faces $300M budget hole after Amendment 3; police, fire off the table for cuts

Jacksonville city leaders now face a $300 million budget hole after voters passed Amendment 3. City leaders say they won’t cut police and fire, but nearly every other city service could feel the squeeze.

Action News Jax sat down with the mayor’s chief of staff, Michael Weinstein, to ask what is and isn’t off the table in a week that brought swift reactions and concerns about trimming the fat after Amendment 3 passed.

The need to cut the city budget is becoming glaringly clear. City Council auditors estimate Amendment 3 will remove about $300 million from Jacksonville’s property tax revenue, and property taxes make up nearly two-thirds of the city’s $2 billion general fund.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The biggest piece of that budget is public safety. More than $1 billion goes to JSO and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, which is more than half of the general fund. City leaders say this week that money is off the table for cuts, though it could grow slower, with things like new fire stations and vehicle replacements delayed. That means the cuts come from what’s left.

“I mean, it’s almost a $300 million reduction out of $700 million of discretionary dollars. So it’s 30, 35, almost 40 percent of discretion dollars that are being lessened,” Weinstein said.

Several City Council members are floating where cuts may be made first. A nearly $60 million beneficiary of that discretionary pot is the Kids Hope Alliance.

“Kids Hope Alliance provides grants to support after-school activities, youth athletics, helping with tutoring. I mean, tens of millions of dollars that now might be wiped entirely out of the way,” Jimmy Peluso said.

The Kids Hope Alliance serves thousands of Jacksonville children and families. The city agency funds almost 90 nonprofits that run hundreds of programs. It’s more than just after-school programs. It’s support from cradle to career for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

“We definitely want them to be reading at grade level when they’re supposed to. We want to keep them out of that train to gangs and jail and what have you,” Weinstein said.

But Weinstein said the Kids Hope Alliance will be affected.

“KHA, like the other things that we do, will be impacted. It’s a very big chunk of what we do. Very big chunk on the budget,” Weinstein said.

The mayor’s chief of staff says there’s no doubt government will shrink, and that includes the nonprofit sector.

“So there will be an impact, but it won’t be debilitating. It won’t be dramatic,” Weinstein said.

Action News Jax asked if there was any conversation about finding new revenue sources.

“No conversation about that at all. Hasn’t been, don’t anticipate that in the near future at all,” Weinstein said.

The mayor will present a smaller, balanced budget to a newly elected City Council next July. It takes effect in October 2027.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.