The Jacksonville Daily Record has a long, dull explainer on the city’s upcoming $775 million in subsidies for a Jaguars stadium renovation, and much thanks to University of Colorado Denver economist Geoffrey Propheter for reading it closely so we don’t have to and finding the details hidden way at the end:
Let’s back up here for a second, as the funding plan is a little complicated. In 2016, with the city owing more in pensions to government workers than it had on hand, Duval County voters overwhelmingly approved extending a 0.5% sales tax surcharge, previously used for road and infrastructure projects, to pay down the pension debt. This May, with the city still owing $3.9 billion on pensions, the city council approved siphoning off $600 million in sales tax money to use on the Jaguars stadium. (The other $175 million in city stadium money is coming from existing hotel taxes.) With the sales tax money now not available to use on pension debts until 2030, “the city would need to use general fund taxpayer dollars to make up the difference of $254 million to fund its share of contributions,” according to the Daily Record. (The pension fund gap is less than the full $600 million in siphoned-off money because the sales tax is coming in faster than initially expected. I think — the article isn’t super clear.)
That’s a lot, but the upshot is: Jacksonville residents voted for a sales tax hike to pay for pension costs, but the city decided to raid that fund to pay for upgrades to a private NFL team’s stadium, so now it will have to either cut services or raise taxes again to cover its pension debt. That is not exactly how the Jaguars deal was sold at the time, but then, we were all distracted at the time by the pretty pictures.
The voters approve a sales tax to fund pensions and the “leaders” can just snatch it away for something else?
Ahh, democracy…..
Living in a PLUTOCRACY…none of these kind of financial shenanigans should be surprising. Infuriating? Absolutely!
It is actually a city owned stadium
In name, so Khan can get out of property taxes. He still gets all the revenues, including naming rights.
Maybe they’re gambling that the city will be mostly underwater by the time the bulk of their pension obligations come due?
But the pensioners will have skedaddled to high ground, and will still be expecting their monthly checks…
It would give them a convenient excuse for a civic bankruptcy that wipes out or significantly haircuts the pensioners, though. A friend’s dad suffered through that here in California, and I can only imagine a Florida jurisdiction would be that much quicker to pull the trigger on such a thing.
Typical Jacksonville city government mentality. Finding ways to waste money on anything useless. Great job, Mayor Deegan!
You nailed it.
Love it. DUUUUVAALLLLLL!
GO JAGS!!!
Gotta pay that team…
Money coming in from games in town so all good..
1 more time!!
Duuuuuuvaaaaallllllllll!!!!!
How about keeping their grubby paws off the still currently underfunded pension fund. People who work/serve the community are relying on the promise of a retirement.
This is thanks to our fiscally ignorant mayor. (By her own admission) She’s not qualified for the job.
“Fiscally ignorant” is who the voters elect at every level, almost without exception. Sure, you can get rid of her, and you’ll get another. Those who know (and tell) the truth about the public fisc at any level don’t get very far.
You are missing some pieces. The original plan was for the new sales tax revenues to start going into the Plan in Jan 2031. A few years ago, they put things in place to make the switch from the original tax to the pension tax happen sooner. This new administration, to help fund the stadium, went back to the original start date for the pension tax – which allowed the original tax to flow in a little longer.
The downside for going back to the original start date of the pension tax is that it will take longer to fully-fund the pension (thus, the pension tax will need to be collected for a longer period than if it had started earlier).
It’s essentially imposing more tax without actually enacting a new tax.
The pension tax plan is sound, though. Eventually the pensions will be fully-funded (sometime before the 30-year sunset of the tax).
Not quite: According to the city’s own (slightly convoluted) explanation, the infrastructure tax was originally going to expire in 2030, and the pension tax start in 2031. Then it was switched to end the infrastructure tax in 2026 and start thr pension tax in 2027 – and then this mayoral administration switched it again to keep the 2026 sunset date, but hold off on funding the pensions until 2031.
But yes, the city can eventually fund the pensions fully either by extending the new tax for more years or by tapping into general funds. Still, the mayor had undeniably taken money earmarked for pensions so $600m can be given to Shad Khan, and that money will have to be recouped somehow, either through additional tax collections or through service cuts.
I gave the City 32 years of my life. Sleepless nights, away from my family on special occasions & holidays, Hurricanes, forest fires, killings, car wrecks, missed meals, sick & dying people, etc. That’s what I signed up for as a Firefighter. All I wanted is what was promised to me and those who served unselfishly. Now, a rookie Democrat politician who never served before is in the back pocket of a 13 billion dollar guy who just took delivery on a 400 foot, 365 million dallar yacht while San Marco, Riverside still flood & decades old promises to taxpayers remain. I, like many can’t go back to work & shouldn’t have to. But I won’t be in the skybox on Sunday drinking Top shelf & eating Cowford Chophouse steaks. That will be reserved for the Mayor, the Weatherman & the council..
Yours is the kind of story that needs to be heard nationally whenever this BS comes up.
Because Republican politicians never give public money to billionaires.
Just like Congress raiding Social Security “Trust Fund, the local politicians raid the pension fund or any other fund they can get their grubby hands on to fund some other endeavor that they could never sell the public on otherwise.
What is especially pathetic is that like in the past, they will blame the public servants for the “under funding”even though the politicians are the ones who either left IOU,’s, or redirected pension fund contributions to pay for other frills.
And then, sell the public on yet another “temporary” tax to “pay it back”.
Go track the “Better Jacksonville” tax, or any number of taxes to see where they are actually going…they expect us all to forget.
Last night the Salt Lake City Council held a public hearing on a zoning ordinance that would virtually strip City control of the area around the Delta Center and allow Ryan Smith to do anything he wants. The height limit would be raised to 600 feet, 200 feet higher than anything in SLC, and make a mockery of the Downtown Plan, that focuses on State Street and Main Street. The Delta Center area would be allowed to be turned into a digital billboard district, across the street from the Salt Lake Temple. Wow. This is on top of a nearly $1,000,000,000 blank check and free or heavily discounted land. The nobility of 18th Century France and 21st Century America are looking more and more alike. But SLC couldn’t find a couple hundred thousand to finish paving streets and installing streetlights and curbs and gutters at the south end of Downtown.
The Team has siphoned a subsidy of about 30 million a year since they came to Jacksonville. This money, has come off the back of city services, workers, and pension obligations under various and sundry financial schemes. Now, they are looking for more money from everywhere and at JEA to cover the shortfalls. It’s not that the city can’t pay or do things right. It’s just that they are leaderless to face the public honestly with the alternatives. Most likely, this behaviour will ultimately be postulated as the reason to sell JEA for the immediate cash. Financial schemers. I can’t say it’s wrong legally, it’s just a way to manipulate results, kick the can, get what you want now, and hope someone can scheme later to cover the shortfalls. Such a great city and it’s good people deserve better. Maybe the city should have bought the jaguars, like Green Bay, at least the value would be public and not private like it is now. We are paying for them regardless, why not buy the steam!
The city of Green Bay doesn’t own the Packers, a local nonprofit does. But in any case, the NFL has since passed bylaws banning any public ownership, so Jacksonville wouldn’t be allowed to buy the Jaguars, even though you’re right that it would be a cheaper option.
Thanks for the love & respect folks. I don’t sleep much at night, have PTSD, & worry a lot about the political climate of this City. I pray for those struggling, less fortunate than myself & know a lot of this crap goes on in many cities Nationwide. All we can do is our homework, pass that on to children & grandchildren & vote them OUT!!
I will never forget what a local politician in Tennessee once told me when I lived there. He said “I represent the people when I’m running for office, but when I’m in office I represent myself.” Ever since then, I look at politicians like grifters and not public servants. They will do anything to line their pockets and will sell their firstborn for a buck.
Now regarding Jacksonville city officials siphoning pension funds: this is no surprise. Heck in Nevada when the inevitable crash comes and there isn’t enough hotel tax revenue to pay the 30+ year bonds off (which are guaranteed to be refinanced once the stadium is deemed obsolete in 12 years), it’s written in the agreement any shortfall will be made up from the General Fund. Yet Mark Davis keeps all the revenue and his team valuation has increased 4-fold already in 5 years.
Good luck Jacksonville paying this debt off.
1995 NFL expansion was so dumb. Jacksonville should have never gotten a team.
It’s not the city’s or the fanbase’s fault that the team stinks year after year after year. Based on that rationale, New Orleans should have lost its team after 20 years — and the Saints had a *much* worse start to their history than the Jaguars did. The same Saints, by the way, who also require a ton of subsidies (and stadium upkeep) to ensure that the team stays put in Louisiana…
Jacksonville is simply finding out that staying a “major-league city” is orders of magnitude more difficult, and costly, than actually becoming one.
Meh, you have one of the few franchises that doesn’t really add anything to the pie. They could have given a Houston franchise an 8 year headstart. Or given it to St Louis and by default kept the rams in LA, Saving the league hundreds of millions.
While the Saints will forever milk the city and state for subsidies- they have a much stronger regional fan base than Jacksonville ever will. Not that it matters a whole lot but Jacksonville’s local tv ratings suck. They’re not close to similarly sized markets.
Everything you said about Jacksonville and the Jaguars franchise could’ve been said about New Orleans and the (pre-Katrina) Saints. It took a ~15 season run of winning, capped off by a Super Bowl win, for the Saints to get to where they are now, and to shed their ‘Aints status once and for all.
And to your point about the Houston scenario: the Oilers themselves were on the verge of relocating to Jacksonville in the late 80s before Houston intervened at the 11th hour to keep the team in town for several more years. It’s not as if Jax never had any priors with the NFL before the expansion process.
The NFL would have been thrilled that the city agreed to throw a megayacht load of money at a massive stadium project. Not saying it was a good or wise move for the city to make, obviously — but it’s the dream scenario for the league, especially since it still reserves the right (via the owners’ vote) to keep the franchise’s future hanging in the balance.
My point is that Jacksonville is a below replacement level city for the NFL.
While yes the “Aints” were an on the field embarrassment for a really long time- they also provided the league with a great Super Bowl venue.
The saints expansion came pre-NFL/AFL merger. Jacksonville came when the NFL was the most popular league in North America. They had better options and they went Jacksonville. The region has grown slower then the rest of the state. Since the 1995 expansion the houston metro has added over 3 million people. St. Louis metro area still has significantly more people then Duval/jacksonville metro.
The created a franchise that’s most valuable contribution to the league is having such inconsequential gameday revenue that they eagerly give up home dates to play in London.
The “better options” in Baltimore and St. Louis more or less sat on their thumbs in trying to get their stadium situations sorted out during the expansion process, even after the delayed the announcement of the second expansion team to get those cities to get their acts together (which they didn’t). And both cities *still* got a team back anyway.
(Although STL eventually lost theirs for the second time, and the league wound up having to pay out a massive settlement because of it — so much for it being a “better option” in the long run.)
We’ll find out soon enough with the owners’ vote whether they agree with your assessment of Jacksonville being a “below replacement level city for the NFL.” Off the top of my head, though, I can’t recall any precedents for league owners voting down an agreed-upon stadium deal between the city and its team, i.e. going against one of the members of their clique.
Of course they’re not going to vote it down. Yes St. Louis and Baltimore got teams- but the rams leaving for LA cost the league nearly a billion dollars, cash paid out of pocket. The ravens exist but they forced the league to give an expansion team to Cleveland at a discount (500 million vs the Texans costing over $700 million just a few years later).
If it were logistically possible the Jaguars would be playing in London permanently.
The Jaguars are such an irrevelant franchise. They have less then 700,000 Facebook followers. Whenever the NFL decides to go international- which ever cities they pick will be instantly more profitable, relevant and valuable then the Jags.
The Jaguars will be relocatiing to ST. Louie