The current catch-phrase in economic development is "gardening," referring to a community's efforts to foster budding small businesses, creating home-grown economic development. It’s a story those of us involved in small business have known—-and been proud of-—for some time.
But now two economic green thumbs for Florida, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UNF and its Small Business Resource Network (SBRN) are being strangled by the weeds of property tax politics.
While these two organizations have been walking the talk of “gardening” for decades (and are certainly two of the reasons Jacksonville is No. 8 in the nation for entrepreneurship), their city public service grants (which are needed to gain matching federal dollars for even more impact) were just cut from Mayor John Peyton's proposed budget.
In short, Jacksonville's been saddled with South Florida’s property tax problem. None of us likes high taxes, but an onerous property tax is not our issue. City leaders must now show the courage to keep it that way. And if leaders need a dose of fertilizer to gain that courage, the thousands of area (actually, now statewide) small businesses who've benefited from the SBRN-SBDC Team need to grab our shovels and plant ourselves in City Hall.
Many of us purposely chose Jacksonville over South Florida because of its higher quality of life. From JCCI to The Better Jacksonville Plan, our city holds a rich tradition of defining quality of life goals—-and then doing what’s necessary to make those objectives reality.
But no “Blueprint for Prosperity” will ever be more than ink on paper if city leaders aren’t willing to invest in continued economic development through organizations such as the SBDC and SBRN.
If City Council can’t figure how to keep growing our flowering garden of small businesses under the new property tax constraints, it should invoke the “opt out” clause of the new law to keep Jacksonville moving forward.
GBA, sjk
