JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new Florida DOGE report identified as much as $63 million of spending it deemed “excessive” here in Jacksonville.
It also outlined some possible ways for state and local lawmakers to chop down local budgets.
The most dramatic of those recommendations would involve dissolving or consolidating some of Florida’s 411 cities.
In Duval, that could theoretically mean the City of Jacksonville absorbing the cities of Neptune, Atlantic and Jacksonville Beach along with the town of Baldwin.
“The less City of Jacksonville there is the better off everyone will be,” Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13) said.
Diamond, who represents the beaches, argued he would fight tooth and nail against any effort to bring the cities he represents under the full control of Jacksonville.
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“The reason why the beaches are so awesome is cause we’re not in Jacksonville. We’re gonna stay out here. If anything, we’ll get our own county,” Diamond said.
Councilmember Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7) added any such effort would likely spark public outcry, as the independence of the beach communities was a major compromise that had to be made to consolidate the City of Jacksonville and Duval County in the 1960’s.
“That sounds like something a crazy person in Tallahassee would think up,” Peluso said.
The report also recommends capping salaries of elected and non-elected city officials and employees.
That proposal is something Duval DOGE Chair Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large) does support.
“The Finance Committee has been very aggressive on the mayor’s office and her salaries. I think many of those people are way over paid,” Salem said.
But Peluso argued that could make the city’s workforce less competitive, especially if the council were to follow through on the report’s recommendation for a multi-year wage freeze for all government employees.
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“That’s so inappropriate and it’s also taking away a tool that, again, local governments should have,” Peluso said. ”This is more of Tallahassee trying to tell us what to do with our money.”
In a statement sent to Action News Jax, the mayor’s office didn’t directly address the report’s recommendations, but did highlight some of what the city is already doing to make government more efficient.
Those efforts include levering automation and AI, process improvements and limits on staff growth.
“The results speak for themselves: reading scores are up, infrastructure projects are up, roads resurfaced are up, free park attendance is up, families on health insurance are up, veterans getting jobs are up, population growth is up. And our property tax rate remains the lowest of any big city in Florida, while the city’s budget carries an A+ bond rating,” a spokesperson with the mayor’s office said.
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