The City of Jacksonville and Jacksonville Jaguars are pleased to have reached agreement on the framework of a deal that protects the taxpayers, benefits the entire community, and secures the Jaguars’ presence in Jacksonville for decades to come.

Estimates suggest the economic impact of the renovated stadium to the Jacksonville community throughout the Jaguars’ 30-year lease will total $26 billion, with an estimated $2.4 billion in one-time economic impact during construction.

This $1.4 billion deal compares favorably to other NFL markets. It is also the largest public infrastructure investment in Jacksonville history, and the largest private investment in the history of downtown Jacksonville.

Community Huddle Presentation

Economic Framework

Funding Proposal

The Better Jacksonville Plan Referendum (BJP) that was passed by the citizens of Jacksonville nearly 30 years ago called for a half of a percent to be added to the sales tax for 30 years to complete a wide variety of capital projects. Jacksonville citizens then passed a second referendum to extend that same half-penny to fund the deficit in the Police and Fire Pension Fund and the City's General Employees’ Pension Fund. The BJP half-penny was to stop at the end of 2030 and the Pension half-penny was to immediately take its place.

A prior administration thought it would be a good idea to consider ending the BJP earlier than 2030, possibly at the end of 2026. This required taking projects that would have been paid for by the BJP sales tax, placing those projects in the City's Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and borrowing money to complete those projects. This moved projects that would have been paid for with available City cash to requiring borrowing to get those projects completed. The pension funds by the approved referendum will receive 30 years of their half-penny or until they are both fully funded. Therefore, whether the BJP ends at the end of 2030 or 2026, the pension funds will be fully funded by the pension sales tax.

If the city follows through with the approved referendum BJP end date of 2030 and returns the projects that were taken out of the BJP and adds similar projects that can be added through City Council approval, it will remove around $600 million from anticipated borrowing and save the taxpayer over $1.5 billion in debt payments and still get all the projects completed according to their schedules.

The relief of this debt burden brings us to the stadium recommendation;

During the next four budget cycles, it is recommended we place into the City's CIP the required funding for our share of the renovation expenses according to the construction schedule and funding requirements matching the construction schedule. The way the CIP works is the City pays the expenses of the CIP projects from various City accounts as the costs occur and at the end of each year the city borrows the amount spent on the projects and reimburses the accounts the funding originally came from. The borrowing at the end of each year is then added to the City's overall debt and paid for in the City's debt service accounts. The goal is always to borrow less than we pay off each year.

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