Mayor Donna Deegan will present her first 2023-2024 budget to the Jacksonville city council Monday.
For the past two weeks, Deegan’s administration has been at work mapping out its $1.7 billion spending plan for the city despite much of the budget being mapped out by the previous administration under Mayor Lenny Curry.
“I’ve made no secret about the fact that infrastructure was the top pillar of my campaign. We have a lot of crumbling infrastructure in this city that we need to fix,” Deegan said.
Deegan said three areas of focus in the budget are infrastructure, health and economy.
“Those are the three pillars you’re going to see sprinkled through my budget. Things that really support those three pillars,” she said.
Earlier in the week, Deegan revealed a glimpse of the nearly $430 million construction and road projects that she will propose with over $200 million in road and drainage projects and $500,000 for pool maintenance.
Deegan’s administration has been holding special meetings where they discussed infrastructure, primarily resiliency, how to handle flooding and problems related to climate change.
Those plans won’t be included in the budget but will become a priority during her administration.
City Council President Ron Salem said he doesn’t believe any surprises will come Monday as his input was also considered in the budget.
Pending City Council approval, the budget will take effect Oct 1.