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| For Mayor: None of the Above? |
| By jaxobserver.com |
| Published: 03/21/2011 |
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If the first televised debate was any indication, Jacksonville voters still have few clues as to how the city’s next mayor will deal with the city’s looming fiscal crisis, a budget shortfall estimated at $60-65 million in 2012 and projected to grow to more than $170 million by 2015, the final year of the next mayor’s first term. Half of those deficits are attributed to the city’s ballooning pension costs, particularly those of the police and fire unions. Moreover, the next mayor will have only a few weeks to present a budget to City Council. The GOP’s Rick Mullaney, a policy wonk who has reportedly raised more than $697,000 in his mayoral quest and whose lavish campaign spending has been augmented by more than $400,000 raised by a 527 supporting his candidacy, probably has the most detailed plan to deal with the city’s pension crisis. The problem, however, is that Mullaney himself is the beneficiary of one of the most generous government pensions in Jacksonville history — more than $140,000 a year, the result of a behind-the-scenes, painstakingly elaborate overhaul of the city’s existing pension plan designed to benefit a handful of public officials, including Mullaney, who was partly responsible for overseeing the attorneys responsible for rewriting the pension code. That’s $140,000 a year for life. Mullaney said that intends to keep his cushy, taxpayer-subsidized pension if elected mayor, but promises to donate a portion of it to charity. Though he was the first candidate in the race to take to the television airwaves, it’s little wonder that Mullaney’s pleas for pension reform have fallen on deaf ears, failing to resonate with a majority of the city’s voters. Like the vast majority of those in the private sector, Mullaney wants future city employees to begin contributing to their own 401(k) plans. To many critics, it contains more than a hint of hypocrisy, particularly now that the former Jacksonville General Counsel has secured his own lucrative retirement courtesy of financially-strapped Duval County taxpayers. A former prosecutor and top city attorney under both Mayor John Delaney and Mayor Peyton, the 55-year-old Mullaney has also promised not to raise taxes as part of his voluminous 34-point plan to shrink government and revitalize Jacksonville’s battered economy. “He’s been feeding at the public trough for so long, he doesn’t realize how ridiculous this makes him look,” said one longtime and angry Westside voter. “All of the sudden, he’s the taxpayers’ best friend, our savior. Give me a break. He‘s been a key player in the administrations that have nearly bankrupted our city.” While that’s not necessarily the way Audrey Moran would phrase it, she probably agrees. While that’s not necessarily the way Audrey Moran would phrase it, she probably agrees. Refusing to adopt George H.W. Bush’s infamous “Read My Lips” refrain, Moran has said that while she doesn’t want to raise taxes, calling for tax cuts, or even hinting at the possibility that taxes won’t be raised in the middle of a deep recession — as Mullaney has promised — is highly irresponsible, particularly when the city faces a $60 million deficit. “Every time a candidate makes such a pledge, it ends up being broken,” she told the Times-Union earlier this year. While Moran’s statement might not be a resounding profile in courage, it’s probably the closest thing that the Jacksonville electorate will hear in terms of straight talk from the mayoral candidates in the campaign’s waning days. Moran says tax cuts are not the answer to Jacksonville’s fiscal problems. “We will never simply cut our way to prosperity,” she said during the first televised debate. Moran, a former aide to Mayors Ed Austin and John Delaney, is the CEO of the Sulzbacher Center for the homeless, a “non-profit” agency almost entirely dependent on government grants from which she draws a lucrative annual salary of over $150,000 — a figure larger than the reported private charitable contributions to the organization in recent years. Remarkably, this is the same Sulzbacher Center that recently announced it would stop serving lunch to the homeless in order to save $50,000 a year. According to the latest campaign finance filings, Moran has raised more than $574,000, about $123,000 less than Mullaney. She, too, is the beneficiary of outside spending. The 527 organization supporting her candidacy has raised $250,000, including $25,000 contributions from Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver and his wife, Delores. Arguably the most forthright candidate when it comes to dealing with Jacksonville’s current and future budget crises — a sea of red ink as far as the eye can see — Moran, one of the few candidates in the race with relevant experience in the private sector, said that her administration will strive to reduce the number of appointed city officials, including political appointees, and by looking for potential savings in the city’s use of space. She has also said that she’s open to the idea of privatizing the city’s fleet management. Read More. |
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