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A Florida mayor just got busted again wasting tax money, and this time people are losing their jobs over it. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan is now crying that if you vote to cut your property taxes in November, she's gonna run out of money to spend. That's a shame.😏
Watch the Full video with all the details here: [Click to Watch]
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority, or JTA, runs the city's buses and the Skyway, mostly on your gas tax money. On Deegan's watch, it's $39 million short. Up to 194 people are losing their jobs, including bus drivers, most routes will only come once an hour, and the Skyway's shutting down completely.
While JTA was heading for broke, it poured $65 million into a driverless shuttle called NAVI. It promised 250 to 300 riders a day and got 89. So more than 50 employees, consultants, and interns rode it on the clock and got counted as passengers. One employee making $149,000 a year cost taxpayers over $3,100 just to ride it. Really? Meanwhile, CEO Nat Ford took home $626,475, more than the President makes, and now he's leaving for Dallas. Glad it worked out for him.😏
But there's one project Deegan says has to be protected no matter what. The Emerald Trail is a 30-mile walking and biking trail. JTA let a $147 million federal grant for it sit unsigned for 16 months until it was gone. Deegan kept going anyway, asking for $12.59 million to buy land, plus the power to take it through eminent domain. Bus drivers lose their jobs, but the trail "must be protected." JTA sounds like a giant slush fund to me.
And somebody on JTA's own board saw all of this coming. She tried to warn the mayor. And the mayor made her pay for it. 👇🏼
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👉🏼 Megan Hayward was Deegan's own pick for the JTA board. She found JTA had paid more than $60,000 to a group run by the board's own vice chair and wanted an independent audit. That same week, Deegan filed legislation to kick her off. Hayward also flagged executives getting tuition paid in full, including one $80,000 Ph.D. She says she showed Deegan about $860,000 in mural and design bills booked as vehicle maintenance, and Deegan "didn't really care." Now Deegan's office claims nobody knew. Hayward's response: "B.S. I say B.S." And Attorney General James Uthmeier just opened a criminal investigation into JTA.
That same mayor says Amendment 3 would "be devastating, frankly, to everything." The city auditor says Jacksonville could lose about $300 million a year. That's not money lost. That's money that stays in homeowners' pockets. Since 2019, the city's budget is up 61%, way past population growth and inflation. If it had just kept pace, it'd be spending about $300 million less right now. CFO Blaise Ingoglia's office flagged over $275 million in waste this year alone, and $623 million since 2020, including $75,000 for a hologram of Deegan at the airport and $7.5 million for one mile of sidewalk.
Now Republican Wyman Duggan, the number two in the Florida House, is running to take her job. He's promising to cut fees, property tax bills, and utility bills, and he voted to put Amendment 3 on your ballot.
Watch the Full video with all the details here: [Click to Watch]
When a politician tells you they can't survive a property tax cut, don't take their word for it. Look at what they've already done with your money. A government that has less to spend finally has to choose what actually matters, and that's police, fire, and roads, not pet projects. That's the whole point. Vote yes on Amendment 3 and put your money back where it belongs, in your pocket.
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