Eye on Jacksonville

Tag: Infrastructure

  • Mayoral candidate LeAnna Cumber plans to shake up Jacksonville politics

    Mayoral candidate LeAnna Cumber plans to shake up Jacksonville politics

    Every day we see another news story about how Jacksonville’s leaders are trying to fleece taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars, from the Mayor’s office pushing a doubling of the gas tax to former JEA executives trying to make themselves rich off our backs. And then we have candidates for political office wanting…

  • Politicians use liberal logic on local voters

    The clever folks in City Haul are using the liberal version of the “trickle-down” theory in an attempt to justify doubling the local gas tax. City Council members should vote the huge tax increase, the mayor’s office is suggesting, because it will do many wonderful things locally but taxpayers throughout the nation will help pay…

  • Late efforts underway to prevent badly needed growth

    Bills related to growth that were still active in the remaining days of the 2021 Florida Legislature could aid Northeast Florida but were drawing opposition from special interests. The bills would limit local governments from placing restrictions on growth such as impact fees. SB 750 on impact fees would make it more difficult for local governments to…

  • Evidence of a billion-dollar threat to public health seems suspect

    Something strange here. According to local politicians, septic tanks are failing all over town, endangering the public health. They want to spend billions — in addition to the billions already spent — on infrastructure, much of it for the purpose of doing away with some of the 65,000 septic tanks in the city. Under new…

  • Another costly project is launched by city officials

    Jacksonville is peering into a very expensive future. Although the taxpayers have spent billions on infrastructure over the past 25 years, they face many billions more. Estimates are flying around: $2 billion for sewers and septic tank removal, a billion more for drainage. And, now: untold millions for “resiliency” – a term that is used…

  • Council plan to redirect dollars is changed by its sponsor

    City Council Finance Committee Chairman Matt Carlucci has tempered his bill to redirect capital outlay money to the core city. A bill he had sponsored would have directed one-third of the planned spending for next year to the area covered by the former city before consolidation, which is 4 percent of the area of the…

  • Examining claims of social injustice in Jacksonville

    Eye on Jacksonville has been skeptical from the start about the rationale for the Special Committee on Social Justice and Community Investment created in the City Council. One reason is that forming a committee on social justice implies there is social injustice in the city. Where is it? What is it? Is it the same…

  • City needs roads? Not exactly a new problem

    One hot topic in City Haul currently is spending on public infrastructure improvements. This is not anything new. In December 1882 – the same year pitchman P.T. Barnum bought his famous elephant Jumbo – the editor of the Daily Times in Jacksonville wrote: “Outside of our hotels there is nothing in Jacksonville exceedingly attractive. We…

  • Big spending plans for the city will benefit mostly a few areas

    If there has been neglect of some areas of the city as alleged, but not proven, apparently it may be rectified over the next five years. Closer examination of the city’s proposed Capital Improvements Plan shows $3 billion in spending on infrastructure is planned. Furthermore, the spending for the five-year period covered by the plan…

  • Necessary data on infrastructure spending in Jacksonville slowly is coming to light

    Finally, a special City Council committee that is eyeing increased spending on infrastructure is beginning to collect some useful data. Knowing where you are before you start a trip always is useful. The committee is setting out to ensure spending is equitable throughout the city. At the committee’s first meeting last week it was clear…

  • There is information on infrastructure spending, but no one asking for it

    Eye on Jacksonville still is holding out hope that someone will lay a predicate for what looks like a huge spending spree, and accompanying tax increase, on the horizon. We didn’t hear it in the mayor’s budget message and we didn’t hear it at the first meeting of the City Council’s new special committee on…

  • One analysis shows the city slipping behind on infrastructure funding

    One of Eye’s financial analysts has done an examination of the city’s finances and has concluded a case can be made that the city has not kept up with infrastructure needs. That is a key issue before the City Council right now, as it begins work on the mayor’s proposed budget. Mayor Lenny Curry is…

  • How could Pizza get a STINK? When it closes and your taxpayer dollars are involved.

    The big announcement came as a shock yesterday when Brixx Wood Fired Pizza closed its doors in Unity Plaza in Riverside. This was the last of three restaurants which closed in that facility only 22 months after opening. Taxpayers subsidized the 220 Riverside project by a total of $12.1 million dollars.  Those dollars came from…