Commission has political cover to do right by budget today

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Miami-Dade Commissioners have a choice today: They can allow Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez to establish his legacy as the man who decimated our police department, libraries and public services while doling out millions in corporate giveaways. Or they can show what true leadership looks like and actually set a tentative increase in the property tax rate to give themselves some wiggle room as they consider county priorities in the next two months.

And there’s actually some political cover for them to do the lattter.

Polls indicate that people want to keep their libraries in tact. There is outrage over the lack of a fireboat that just maybe — even by a smidgen of a chance — could have made the difference between life and death on the Fourth of July. There is a growing concern with the loss of any more Miami-Dade Police officers from our force. The animal-loving Pet’s Trust people got 64 percent of voters to approve an additional average tax of $15 a month to improve animal services. Community-based organizations who are getting their funds cut are crying foul and telling everyone how we will suffer from their losses.

There is no better time to contemplate a small tax hike. Especially since they don’t have to make a final decision for another several weeks. Especially since they forgot to leave themselves any wiggle room last year and then had their hands tied as hundreds of people packed every town hall meeting begging them to fund our services. Don’t have a repeat of last year.

Meanwhile, Gimenez gives millions away in marketing incentives to cruise companies, a contract to the company that employs his son, performance payments for events at the SunLife Stadium and wanted to give millions more last week to private developers who probably don’t deserve it.

And it’s not like Gimenez — who gives millions away in marketing incentives to cruise companies, millionaire sports team owners and private developers who probably don’t deserve it — is holding the zero line on taxes. Not really, anyway.

There are $10 million in increased fees from transit — both the bus and MetroRail used by county residents who can’t afford cars and the Special Transportation Services for the elderly and disabled — and increased fees for some animal services and park programs.

So Gimenez can put a bumper sticker on his car that says “I didn’t raise taxes” and be officially truthful but also irrelevant at the same time, because he will have increased other fees that basically make up for it.

“This is like soaking the public from a different direction,” said Terry Murphy, a former commission aide who is now a consultant to several labor unions.

He and others — library advocates, labor leaders — are optimistic that the commission will see the signs.

“I’m hoping logic prevails,” Murphy said.

Several sources believe there are the votes on the commission to slightly increase the tax rate, if even temporarily.

The hold-outs are Gimenez’s pocket Commissioners Esteban Bovo and Javier Souto, and maybe Commissioner Juan “El Zorro” Zapata, who has said there is too much waste and wants to see services restored from the current budget, and Vice Chair Lynda Bell, who on Monday sent a budget eve rampage message in which she railed against the county employees, saying that too many of them are making too much.

“With some employees collecting upwards of ten pay supplements, how can any public servant in good conscience propose laying off police officers or fire fighters who are on the front-lines saving lives when there are so many, who through the years, have accumulated layers of extra pay resulting in six figure salaries,” Bell asked rhetorically in a super-long, self-promotional piece that was published in the Community Newspapers.

“The public needs to know that by eliminating supplemental payments and excessive benefits, we will unencumber approximately $230 million, more than enough to cover the current service level gap, avoid reduction in positions, and properly fund our Miami-Dade County Public Library System in its entirety,” Bell said in a message that seems to repeat much of the mayor’s own language (some people think his people wrote it).

“We must put an end to the culture of entitlement created by labor leaders. If we truly hope to find a long-term solution to Miami-Dade County’s budget woes public servants should be treated no differently than any other hard working taxpayer who receives a well-earned salary and benefits. No more no less,” said Bell, who last week tried to give her political sugar daddy, developer Wayne Rosen, a $5 million gift to build a mixed use parking lot in Palmetto Bay.

So Rosen is entitled to millions of dollars, instead? What we must do is put an end to the culture of entitlement commissioners have to give our money away to those people who contribute to their election campaigns.

And what the public also needs to know is that Bell voted for the contract negotiated three years ago in which the benefit concessions they made were promised to be snapped back. This was a deal she and others voted for. And now she rails against the unions, who are obligated to stick to their ratified agreement, as voted on by membership? Why did she vote for this three years ago? And how convenient it is that she takes no responsibility now.

Bell is in the midst of the race to save her political life — and the statement sent Monday night was a stab at campaign CPR.

But she seems to be in the minority. There are no fewer than nine commissioners who have, at one point or another, expressed a willingness to raise the tax rate if only to keep the conversation going.

Sure, Gimenez has said he would veto any tax increase in his 2014-15 “worst case scenario” budget, because he does see it as his. But we already saw the county commission overturn a veto not once, but twice.

That was a leadership moment. Maybe we’ll see another one today.

  budget cuts, Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade budget