Mayor, Council President Launch Budget Talks

Hoping to teach Jacksonville taxpayers more about how the city's billion dollar spending plan is crafted, Mayor John Peyton and City Council President Richard Clark have scheduled a series of town hall style budget workshops and launched a new website aimed at lifting the veil of uncertainty from the city budget.

"We need this conversation, we need this platform for early discussions," Peyton said at the launch of MyJaxBudget.com.

The Mayor predicts a $40-60 million budget shortfall when he presents a billion dollar spending plan to City Council in mid-July.

In addition to the website, educating taxpayers on how the city collects revenue and where that money goes, Peyton and Clark have scheduled a series of budget workshops, an attempt to help taxpayers understand city departments, functions and current budget priorities.

"From these workshops, we will publish reports on what the conclusions were from the individual workshop tables," Peyton said, when asked how these community meetings will help him shape a budget. "They will provide a ranking of what functions they think are critical and which ones are not. I think it gives us good input."

A total of six budget workshops are scheduled, each limited to just 88 participants.