When the Jacksonville City Council gaveled a 13-hour meeting early Wednesday, it left the building with the biggest general operating budget in the city’s history.
Despite back-and-forth on Mayor Donna Deegan’s priorities, a fight over social policy language and a fight over a modest cut to the city’s property tax rate, the council’s approval of a $2.06 billion general operating budget and $559.12 million capital improvement plan to fund city infrastructure projects was nearly unanimous.
The budget season included public campaign-style rhetoric — including pressure from Florida’s state chief financial officer; news conferences and town halls; and council member Rory Diamond’s failed effort to prohibit city dollars from benefiting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, abortion or undocumented immigrants…