Looks like the mayor has settled (for now) on a price tag of $350 million for a new courthouse. This project has been a nightmare, so on one hand I can see how the council might be willing to just accept whatever is thrown out to get things rolling finally.
But seriously, think about that amount of money in the larger context of things.
If we’re really in the middle of a “budget crunch” and a public safety crisis… shouldn’t we focus on putting more officers on the street? Is a nice, modern courthouse helpful in catching and processing more criminals? Maybe it is, but I’ve yet to hear anyone make a solid case for why this money has to be spent in this way.
Couldn’t a facility be built much cheaper on even cheaper real estate? Does Duval County need a courthouse that costs as much as a deep space probe, 10 million gallons of Gate gasoline, and Barack Obama’s entire Presidential campaign combined?
April 1st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
This whole thing is a disgrace. Some legacy, Mayor Peyton!
April 1st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I totally agree with you. The only hitch to funneling this money towards law enforcement or something else is that the money was raised specifically for internal improvements during the Better Jacksonville campaign. It’s a sales tax, so you can’t very fairly give the money back, but you can’t put it towards something meaningful (like police officers) either. Catch 22, I guess…
April 1st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Sure… and I didn’t mean to suggest it was an apples for apples trade-off. But I can think of a whole lot of other projects that would benefit the community more than a courthouse. I guess that was my point.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
It is sad that we are even thinking about spending that kind of money on a building, when we have to hear about cutting budgets on everything in Jacksonville, from the police dept to organizations that could be helping keep some of these kids busy instead of on the streets. Come on Mayor Peyton!