City officials are usually desperate to avoid tough financial decisions, but Jacksonville's new class of elected leaders won't be able to avoid it
During budget negotiations last year, a finance official told the council that City Hall is in good financial shape but could see"a little bit of pressure" in three or four years. By that point, the city is projected to be paying off about $2.9 billion in debt.
Adding hundreds of millions more in new borrowing would change the city's debt-affordability forecast and likely not for the better. Generally, every $10 million in debt the city issues adds about $800,000 in debt service the city must cover each year, according to city finance estimates. So committing to, say, $500 million in new debt would add about $40 million in annual costs to the budget.
Tools the city has used in the past to pay for Khan projects, like hotel-tax revenue, are tapped out, leaving two options: issue general obligation debt or pay for it with a new tax. Curry's five-year infrastructure budget, for example, did not include money to move the jail or police headquarters — a move some downtown advocates believe is necessary — but it estimated the cost to be about $388 million, which would equate to another $31 million or so in annual debt obligations taxpayers would be on the hook to cover . A new convention center, which is an idea city officials have kicked around for several years, would also represent a major financial commitment.
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