THURSDAY July 26, 2018
The Mathis Report: JinkoSolar seeking $2 million plant build-out PAGE 4
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
MAYOR CURRY'S 2018-19 BUDGET
IT firm bringing 107 jobs Downtown
Daily Record BUDGET POURS Daily Record MONEY INTO Daily Record DISTRICTS JACKSONVILLE
JACKSONVILLE
SharedLabs Inc. has incentives approved by the City Council, will lease fourth floor of the Dyal-Upchurch Building. BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
JACKSONVILLE
Proposed $164.3 million in capital improvement projects focus on North and West Jacksonville. BY DAVID CAWTON STAFF WRITER
J
acksonville’s most impoverished neighborhoods could receive infrastructure improvements if Mayor Lenny Curry’s latest budget is approved in September. Curry on Monday introduced a $1.2 billion city budget to the Jacksonville City Council with $164.3 million worth of capital improvement projects. The legislative branch plans to go through it line by line in August and September, as each city department, independent authority and members of the executive branch defend their annual allocations and enhancements.
While each of Jacksonville’s 14 council districts receives benefits from the $39.1 million in countywide infrastructure projects, the 2018-19 budget places more emphasis and allocates more money to districts in North and West Jacksonville. Countywide spending is down 50 percent from the current budget. The opposite is true for district spending, which increased 51 percent from 2017-18. Overall, the Capital Improvement Program budget, which accounts for infrastructure and other priority spending, is up 2.38 percent year over year. District 7, which comprises Down-
2018-19 BUDGET KEY NUMBERS n General fund spending of $1.2 billion is up 3.3 percent from 2017-18 n Property taxes: Duval County millage rate steady at 11.4419 n Ad valorem tax revenue up 7.7 percent at $674 million n $117 million contribution from JEA n Largest single project: $25 million to remove the Hart Bridge ramps
INSIDE n A district-by-district look at spending. Page 10
SEE BUDGET, PAGE 10
Photo by Dede Smith
SharedLabs Inc., which was code-named Project Wolfe as its incentives request headed toward City Council approval Tuesday night, will lease space on the fourth floor of the DyalUpchurch Building on the Downtown Northbank. Company President and CEO Jason Cory said Wednesday the IT services company took the entire floor, where it will create 107 full-time IT and finance jobs by year-end 2021 that pay an average wage of $53,298. The location at 6 E. Bay St. is next to JAX Chamber “with easy access to Cory anywhere in the metro area,” Cory said. SharedLabs will lease 6,750 square feet, according to a Certificate of Use application. Council approved Resolution 2018-408 for the city’s $107,000 portion of a Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund and a price reduction of $24,000 for the use of 40 parking spaces in the cityowned Yates Garage over five years, totaling $131,000. The state is responsible for the remaining 80 percent of the QTI, or $428,000. The QTI incentives work out SEE DOWNTOWN, PAGE 7
THE BASCH REPORT
Analysts liking the performance of CSX PAGE 8 VOLUME 105, NO. 172 • TWO SECTIONS