JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville city council committee has approved the release of $30 million in local gas tax funds to rescue the Jacksonville Transportation Authority from a deepening financial crisis.
The money would go toward stabilizing the agency’s finances after officials discovered a $39 million budget shortfall — raising urgent questions about how one of the city’s most relied-upon transit agencies reached this point.
The full city council is expected to vote on the emergency measure next Tuesday, Oct. 13.
How did the shortfall happen?
JTA’s interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson and newly hired Chief Financial Officer Randall Bernard Barnes — who joined the agency in August — laid out the details before the city council’s Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee…