Finance Committee Budget Hearing #6 – August 27, 2026: JAA Budget, Cecil Plan, and Wrap-Up
Finance Committee Budget Hearing #6 – August 27, 2026
The Finance Committee held its sixth and final full-day budget hearing on August 27, 2026, to review the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget proposal. The meeting began with a 90-minute session on the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) budget and the Cecil Field development plan, followed by a wrap-up where the committee considered and voted on numerous amendments and enhancements. Key themes included accelerating Cecil Field investment, managing budget uncertainty around Amendment 3, and maintaining fiscal discipline while supporting community programs.
Discussion Items
JAA Budget Overview
- Council Auditor Phillip Peterson presented the JAA’s proposed FY 26-27 budget. Operating revenues are budgeted at $161.2 million, an increase of $11.5 million year-over-year. Concessions revenue is projected at $27.1 million (up nearly $1 million), and landing fees and terminal rentals are also increasing. Operating expenditures total $104.1 million (up $10 million), including 40 new positions for Concourse B, a 4% pay raise, and a 10% health insurance cost increase. Parking revenue is budgeted at $31.3 million (down $900,000) due to economy lot trends and hourly garage repairs. The capital budget includes federal contributions of $6.3 million, tenant contributions of $10.3 million (including $8 million for a payload processing facility at Cecil), and $35.2 million for operating capital outlay. JAA’s net income before transfers is $41 million, with $5.9 million transferred to retained earnings. The auditor noted no recommendations at this time but will provide a CIP recommendation in September.
- Council President Howland commented first, noting that last year’s budget hearing led to three amendments directing JAA to accelerate Cecil investment using retained earnings. He highlighted five subsequent events: (1) JAA’s board passed a motion condemning council for exceeding its authority (later deemed legal by OGC); (2) JAA passed a resolution condemning the J-Bill (which passed 18-0 in council and 149-0 in the legislature); (3) In July 2026, JAA passed another resolution condemning council and authorizing a lawsuit; (4) A draft lawsuit named council members 100+ times; (5) JAA filed an ethics complaint against President Howland, immediately dismissed. Howland stated the only beneficiary was the city and urged no retribution, focusing instead on accelerating Cecil’s development.
Cecil Field Development Plan
- Tony Q., JAA Chief Operating Officer, presented the Cecil Air and Spaceport comprehensive development plan. Cecil currently employs 3,000 direct jobs (average salary $70,000) and 9,000 indirect jobs, generating $2.2 billion in annual economic impact. The plan covers 3,000 acres, but much is constrained by floodways, floodplains, wetlands, archaeological sites, and runway protection zones, leaving 1,159 developable acres. Key initiatives include: (1) Completing the comprehensive plan by October 2026; (2) Constructing Taxiway Echo (estimated $30 million) to unlock east side development; (3) Pursuing a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (EA) with the FAA to create shovel-ready sites (18–24 month process); (4) Purchasing two city-owned parcels – a 43-acre former barracks for spaceport and fixed-wing development, and an 8-acre parcel adjacent to Hermes (hypersonic propulsion) – at fair market value; (5) Building a permanent payload processing facility and moving rocket motor test stands to the southwest side. Q. emphasized the need for unity of voice with city, state, and federal partners and requested continued alignment. Council members voiced strong support for the plan and the vision of making Cecil an aerospace and space MRO hub. Several offered to help facilitate land purchases and legislative advocacy.
Wrap-Up and Enhancements
- Chairman Lahnen summarized the committee’s work: CIP review is complete with small offsetting changes; total CIP is nearly flat to the mayor’s proposal, with debt-funded projects slightly under. James Well and Johnson Park drew discussion over a $1.75 million year-over-year increase; Daryl Joseph will return on Tuesday with more detail. Kids Hope Alliance discussion resulted in no action; a $5 million reduction was not adopted, and the bill will be taken up in September. Finance committee approved four items tabled on day one (previously funded items not in mayor’s budget), added Hogs Pen Creek study, and created a public safety item fund. The committee then heard enhancement requests from council members.
- Council Member White requested $64,737 for firefighter training tower repairs (shortfall from last year). After discussion, it was agreed to pursue separate legislation using current year debt savings.
- Council Member Amara requested accelerating a traffic signal at University and Edenfield Road by moving $240,000 in PD&E to FY 26-27 and $1.6 million construction to FY 27-28. The motion passed.
- Council Member Peluso requested $50,000 via one-cycle emergency for Unity Classic and Juneteenth sponsorships, offset by using his CBA dollars for the fire tower and debt savings. Consensus was reached.
- Council Members Arias and Johnson requested restoring funding for Florida Association of Counties and League of Cities dues ($237,427) from the public safety contingency. After debate, the motion failed (oral vote). Councilman Arias indicated he would bring a floor amendment.
- Council Members Arias and Johnson also sought to increase Cultural Services Grants (CSG) and Public Service Grants (PSG) from 50% above the line to 75%. Chairman Lahnen amended to 65%, which passed. The amendment as amended then passed.
- Council Member Carlucci proposed $35,000 from council contingency for a city council museum. After discussion, the motion was withdrawn; he will work with auditors on a separate piece of legislation.
- Council Member Diamond moved to reduce Orlec funding by $750,000 (moving half to contingency, half left below the line). The amendment passed.
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Acceleration of traffic signal at University and Edenfield Road (moved up one year)
- Approved: 65% of CSG and PSG funding placed above the line; remainder in Amendment 3 contingency (if Amendment 3 fails, full funding restored)
- Approved: Reduction of Orlec funding by $750,000 (with intent to restore in next budget)
- Passed (consensus): Fire tower funding to be addressed via separate legislation using debt savings; Peluso’s sponsorships using CBA trade and debt savings
- Failed: Restoration of FAC/League of Cities dues ($237,427) from public safety contingency
- Withdrawn: City council museum funding (to be pursued later)
- No action: Kids Hope Alliance budget – will return in September
- Ongoing: James Well and Johnson Park – further discussion set for Tuesday’s finance meeting
- Bottom line: Total expenditures are $522,848 below last year’s budget when excluding the public safety contingency. The public safety contingency balance stands at $23,405,097. CIP debt-funded projects are approximately $2 million less than the mayor’s proposal, after adding projects from Carlucci and Amara.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the sixth and final full day budget hearing to discuss the fiscal year 26-27 budget proposal. We'll start off with introductions to my left Angela Moyer, budget office. Mike Weinstein, Mayor's Office. Philip Peterson, Council Otter's Office. Brian Parks, Council Auditors Office. Mary Stefopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Matt Large, Visiting Council Member. Matt Carlucci at large. Try that again. Group four. Thank you. Good morning, Chris Miller, at large group five. Will Lane in District Three. Good morning, and thank you all for the kind words and the prayers for my my baby girl. She is home in a lot of pain, but uh she's she's recovering. This is Terrence Freeman at large group one. Mike Gay, District Two. Randy White, District 12. Nick Howland at large, group three. Ron Salem, group two at large. Good morning, Raw Aries, District 11. All right, good morning, everyone. Uh, I did want to know Councilmember Diamond does have a uh approved excuse for part of the day, and uh it looks like Councilmember Johnson is running late, but we do have quorum for now, and we will require five for quorum at this point in time. Uh today uh excuse me. So today uh JA is gonna get the first 90 minutes. They're gonna discuss both uh budget and Cecil Field. Uh and then after that, we will I imagine we'll have a number of uh council members outside of finance here where we will uh I'll start off by giving a summary as to where we are at through the end of yesterday, and then entertain and debate any additional requests that we will then put into the finance substitute to go to committee this coming Tuesday. Uh JA, the way we're gonna do this, just like the other independent authorities, we're gonna have Mr. Peterson walk us through their auditor notes, and then if we have any questions, uh we will uh uh let you know and ask you uh any specific questions about the budget based on the auditor notes. So uh with that, Mr. Peterson, I'll hand it off to you. Okay, that takes us to our handouts on page three of the handout, similar to the other independent agencies. You'll see uh JA's 2526 budget, eight months of actuals where they project to finish the current year, and then their proposed budget for 2627. I think it would be helpful to just have that in front of you uh while we go through this handout. Um JA uses aircraft landing fees, terminal rental charges, concession fees, and other rental charges, including those for parking and rental car companies to cover their operating costs. Capital costs are covered by uh grants, customer facility charges, passenger facility charges, excess revenues from operations, and then debt. Um, and then obviously they have the four airports that they operate at. Um should be noted that the new parking garage is expected to open October of this year, concourse B to open either in December or January, and then the hourly garage is expected to be completed or fixed rather uh June-July of next year. Uh within their operating revenues, they have 161.2 million budgeted uh for the upcoming year. That's an 11.5 million dollar increase year over year. Uh within that concessions budgeted at 27.1 million, uh up nearly a million dollars due to um mostly uh expected increased activity with the opening of concourse B. That's in their retail and food and beverage uh lines, and then also 227,000 in fuel flowage fees based on higher sales at Cecil. Within their fees and charges revenue line item, uh budget at 29.2 million. It's an increase of 1.4 million year over year. Uh a lot of that is seven almost 700,000 in landing fees for signatory airlines, uh 290,000 in aircraft parking fees, 180,000 in operating permits for their grand ground handling services, and then another 140,000 in their landing fees for fixed-based operators. Space and facility rentals is increasing 9.8 million year over year. Uh 5.9 is within space rental for their signatory airlines, and then a little over 2 million in joint use space for the signatory airlines. 1.5 million in the rent-a-car ready return spaces and facility rentals due to additional car rental spaces being available once the new garage opens. Uh, this increase is partly offset by decrease in the joint use space charged to non-signatory airlines to better align uh with the actuals they are experiencing uh while accounting for the anticipated rate increase.
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