JACKSONVILLE, Fla -- Before city council, Mayor Alvin Brown delivered next year's proposed budget. A b
udget he says is plagued by pension."That's why I'm saying clearly and definitively pension reform must be our city's goal," Mayor Brown said.
Mayor Brown says the city is obligated to spend more than $150 million on pensions this coming year -- an increase of more than $46 million.
"In the next five years its going to go up by 30 million so its going up," he said.
But Nelson Cuba with the FOP can't understand why the Mayor waited until now to tackle a problem that's been plaguing the city for a long time. He says since taking office a year ago, Mayor Brown has never sat down with the pension office to work out a new deal.
"The pension has given him several proposals - the pension office has - in reference to changes that could be made so maybe we wouldn't get hit as hard as were getting hit now with this increase in pension cost," Cuba said. "But maybe this is what the Mayor wanted - let's do this, see that train crashing and then get everybody in an uproar."
The mayor's office says that Cuba's comments isn't true, they have sat down and met with the pension office.
Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford has his own solution. He wants to keep property taxes the same as last year, even though home values have gone down.
"If they don't pay the same level of tax they paid last year, they're not going to have the same level of service in public safety they had last year," Rutherford said. "They're going to wait on the side of the road for FHP, we're not going to work traffic at special events, we are closing one of our jails."
But Mayor Brown is holding firm on one of his biggest promises upon taking office.
"I'm not for raising taxes. I think we have to live within our means and that's what I want to do."
The mayor's proposal comes with the elimination of roughly 500 jobs and include cuts in every department.
