JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Transportation Authority board members pushed for real remedies, not just band-aids, Wednesday at the agency’s first board meeting since it announced sweeping layoffs.
“What we can’t do is go to the citizen and say you paid all this gas tax and we can’t manage ourselves, so we’re going to take the money and have you fix the problem,” board member Daniel Vallencourt said. “We have to know several things: what happened and how it gets solved.”
The board voted unanimously to approve a motion proposed by the Jacksonville City Council to keep the cash-strapped agency funded as it faces a $39 million budget shortfall.
The deal
Under the proposal introduced in council Tuesday night, JTA would get a $30 million, zero-interest loan that doesn’t have to be paid back until 2037. The money would come from unspent local option gas tax funds. Drivers pay that tax every time they fill up, and the fund has grown to about $47 million.
City Council President Nick Howland said the council did not want the gas tax money to become a handout.
“We don’t want them to use that LOGT as a bailout. So we structured it as a no-interest loan that has to be paid back,” Howland said.
Howland said council committees will take up the legislation on Oct. 5 and 6.
But JTA plans to use the loan to pay off an existing line of credit. Howland said that line has built up about $20 million.
“The City Council is considering companion legislation that will allow the JTA to apply up to $30 million of those proceeds toward paying down the line of credit authorized in July,” interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson told the board. It was his first time addressing the board publicly since the layoffs were announced.
READ: JTA announces nearly 200 layoffs, major service cuts as agency works to close $39 million budget gap
In August, JTA said the credit line would help the agency catch up on more than $22 million in unpaid bills. Action News Jax went to board members Wednesday to find out what the line of credit is paying for now, but we were blocked from asking questions.
What’s not in the deal
The proposal does not cover severance or restructuring costs. JTA is preparing to cut nearly 200 employees in the coming weeks.
“These decisions carry a real human cost,” Ferguson said.
Howland said the city still intends to support JTA’s current projects, even as battle lines are being drawn over which gas tax projects could be reworked.
“Currently there are LOGT funds going to the Skyway, going to NAVI and going to the Emerald Trail,” he said.
Service on those projects is still being cut. The Skyway is set to stop running Nov. 2, and NAVI shuttles will stop Jan. 1.
The loan will still need a final vote from the full council after the committee meetings. Action News Jax will continue to follow the emergency ordinance and what it means for your tax dollars.
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