According to a source familiar with the plans, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority intends to “cease passenger operations” for the Skyway Express on November 1.
And that’s only the horrifying beginning.
JTA is also expected to park its $65 million NAVI program and eliminate as many as 194 positions — 44 administrative jobs and another 150 operational employees, including drivers and maintenance staff.
The St. Johns River Ferry hours will be reduced on October 1, while fixed-route bus service will operate on a reduced schedule.
In other words, JTA’s chickens aren’t merely coming home to roost.
They are arriving on horseback — with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The drastic cuts come after city officials exposed JTA’s dirty little financial secret: a projected $32.8 million in cost overruns for the current fiscal year.
According to Action News Jax, JTA had 59 days of cash on hand last month, owes more than $22 million in outstanding bills, and recently secured a $40 million line of credit.
If all of that wasn’t disgusting enough, JTA reportedly wants City Council to pass emergency legislation allowing the authority to pillage tens of millions from local option gas tax funding to help pay its way out of this mess.
Don’t forget: Every time we fill our gas tanks, a portion of that money goes toward funding JTA’s shenanigans.
In 2021, City Council approved a six-cent local option gas tax increase expected to generate nearly $495 million for JTA’s 17 MobilityWorks 2.0 projects through 2052 — including $247 million specifically earmarked for the U2C/Skyway transformation.
Nat Ford became JTA’s CEO in 2012. Mayor Donna Deegan later praised his leadership as “visionary.”
Strange, considering Ford led JTA for about 14 years but apparently couldn’t see a $32 million financial disaster barreling down the tracks.
Or perhaps he saw it just fine.
Perhaps that’s why Ford is heading to Dallas, leaving his longtime understudy, interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson III, holding the bag.
Ferguson joined JTA 11 years ago as VP of administration and served as chief administrative officer until Ford quit over the summer.
That same year Ferguson joined JTA — 2015 — the executive leadership team began planning the future of the Skyway.
Today, JTA may have finally settled on a plan:
Turn the damn thing off.
