Florida lawmakers are pushing sweeping legislation after an Action News Jax investigation exposed questionable spending at the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA).
We’ve told you about more than generous executive salaries and travel, significant spending on lobbyists, and a budget surplus that dropped from $50 million to $4 million in just a few years. All that, while ridership struggles to rebound, on-time service fails to meet the mark, and the agency narrowly avoided a strike.
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Action News Jax Investigator Emily Turner has been covering JTA for months. She found this new legislation takes direct aim at the way JTA operates. The bill analysis mentions JTA by name and if it passes would slash the agency’s administrative budget, including the salary and spending of its top executive, Nat Ford.
HB 1301 would make sure the money agencies like JTA spend at its top level is “not greater than 10 percent above the annual state average of administrative costs.” That includes things like salaries and benefits.