Source: The Florida Times-Union, October 13, 2006
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/101306/opl_5568040.shtml
Now that the mayor and City Council members have lost four consecutive times in Appeals Court in Tallahassee to block you, the voter, from exercising your referendum rights, they are now resorting to an old-fashion scare tactic - howling that if voters return Cecil Field to the Navy, taxes will rise.
"We can't afford it," the anti-Navy officials and developers cry as they dump over a quarter-million dollars to attack the Navy's return. Their cheerleaders are hard at work spinning a nightmare of overcrowded classrooms and skyrocketing tax bills.
Don't be fooled by the developers.
The looming truth is Jacksonville can't afford to push our Navy away.
The Navy means jobs for Jacksonville residents. The top two area employers are NAS Jacksonville and NAS Mayport, accounting for more than 41,000 jobs.
The Naval Air Depot, NADEP, North Florida's largest industrial employer, adds another 3,500. In 2005, aircraft mechanics were the area's fastest-growing job category.
In contrast, over the past seven years, the city has landed only 700 nonmilitary-related jobs at the Cecil Commerce Center. This anemic performance has come after subsidizing leases, selling land at steep discounts and handing bundles of cash to developers to bring business there.
We can do better.
Led by its chairman, Gov. Jeb Bush, Enterprise Florida commissioned a study last year on the economic impact of reactivating Cecil Field. The study, conducted by the University of West Florida, showed that the Navy's return to Cecil Field would be an economic tsunami for Northeast Florida.
Here's a summary of the findings:
It seems provocative to suggest that the Navy's return would generate tax relief. But the study shows that the region will gain over $50 million in tax revenues every year.
It seems provocative to suggest the cost to transfer Cecil Field's title will be recouped in a single year through additional tax revenues. But guess what? Last year, the city estimated the cost of its proposal to return the base to the Navy at $200 million with the city paying $50 million and the remainder being paid by the state.
Last week, Bush reaffirmed this commitment: "We're on record of being committed to coming up with the resources necessary to make that [Navy at Cecil Field] a reality."
Even if the estimates provided by the city a year ago doubled, or even tripled, it's still a no-brainer.
In Mayor John Peyton's own words last year, the Navy's return to the base would be a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to bolster Jacksonville's jobs base and bottom line.
But now, the city claims that it will "cost" $1.7 billion to convey the property back to the Navy. This is a gross misstatement, particularly when less than a year ago, this "cost" was going to be nothing. Of the seven property owners at Cecil, only a single acre is owned by a nongovernmental entity.
Why should the city "pay" another governmental entity that it has budgetary control over $1.7 billion for property that was previously agreed to be provided at no cost? Jacksonville voters will recognize this shell game.
Jacksonville is Navy to the core. Active Navy employees are the backbone of the city's wage base. Retirees form the bulk of workers in local high-tech firms. Navy spouses are teachers, volunteers and a major employee base for Jacksonville's largest companies.
We must bring the Navy back to Cecil Field or else jobs will start disappearing. We can't afford to lose these people and the jobs.
We have already witnessed the beginning of this trend. In the past week, we lost the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy and more than 3,000 sailors, plus their families. NADEP will phase out its operations, as future aircraft repairs will be performed where the jets are based. If those jets are not based at Cecil Field, aircraft mechanics will not be the fastest-growing jobs; they will be Jacksonville's largest export as they move near jet bases.
Jacksonville voters are smart and they're patriotic. They will take a stand for our brave Navy pilots and Jacksonville's future by voting "yes" for Cecil Field.