Jacksonville city council approves sending 1-mill renewal decision to voters following finance committee delay

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Voters will get to decide on extending Duval County Schools’ 1-mill referendum, also known as a property tax, this November after a delay from the city council finance committee caused public outcry last week.

The Jacksonville City Council voted 15 to 0 after discharging Ordinance 2026-0387 from the finance committee onto the floor during Tuesday’s regular council meeting.

Many council members spoke in favor of giving voters a chance to decide on extending the property tax.

News4JAX spoke with Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier following the vote.

“Our teachers won a great victory tonight. I’m really proud of the City Council, very thankful for their questions last week,” he said. “I think they gave us an opportunity to clear up the message and the work tonight puts it on the ballot in November and now the people get to make a decision.”

The finance committee deferred the ordinance last week, which delayed the decision on whether voters would get to weigh in on extending the 1-mill property tax that first passed in 2022. The school board voted 6-1 in March to send the renewal to city council.

The measure needed council approval to appear on the November ballot.

Some council members previously pointed to the proposed statewide property tax cut from state lawmakers in Tallahassee as a reason for the delay. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan addressed the holdup at a news conference Thursday, saying she did not believe the council has grounds to stall.

“The role of the council, in what I’ve been told, is to simply be in a ministerial and managerial role — just making that request happen,” Deegan said. “So I don’t think council has a role here beyond saying ‘this is what you want, we’ll put it on the ballot.’ I don’t really understand the debate.”

Duval County Schools says the 1-mill tax will generate about $121 million a year and will fund teacher and employee pay, arts programs, and athletics. It is not a tax increase — it would maintain the current rate. For a home valued at $300,000, the tax amounts to about $300 a year.

John Meeks, a teacher and first vice president of Duval Teachers United, said the delay put educators’ livelihoods in jeopardy.

“I think the only result of these delays could be the endangerment of our teachers’ well-being,” Meeks said. “There’s no increase. It’s just a keeping of the status quo, which has allowed our school system to have the A grade that it has today. I don’t think we can afford to go backwards.”

Tiffany Clark, a parent and advocate with Parents Who Lead, said the holdup pulled focus away from what matters.

“This is getting tied up in a way that it shouldn’t,” Clark said. “This is only about teachers and that’s it, and that is where the focus needs to be.”

Dr. Bernier encouraged voters to research the 1-mill before heading to the ballot box.

“I think our voters have to do their due diligence just like the City Council did. They have to dig into the issues, they have to understand how the money is being utilized and how aggressive we’ve been of being good fiduciary and good stewards of this money and that will allow them to make an informed decision,” he said.

Voters now have the final say on the renewal if the measure reaches the November ballot.