The courthouse bond tax issue is all but lost.
Tales from the field and a not-so-secret poll
show the referendum — asking voters to approve a new tax bond of $393 million to build a taj majal of justice somewhere in the downtown that has not yet been determined to replace the aging, crumbling Cielito Lindo — will lose by more than 10 points.
But a last, desperate email blast sent Monday afternoon from attorney Joseph Serota — of Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Pastoriza, Cole & Boniske, a very political firm — lists five reasons to vote yes for the $400 million blank check.
My words, not his.
His are:
Our community is in desperate need of a new Courthouse and tomorrow is the day you can make it happen. The Top 5 Reasons to Bubble #168!
Voting Yes on Question 4 will:
Save the existing courthouse from gradual “wear and tear” by making emergency repairs.
- Re-program the existing building for a purpose in keeping with its grand history.
- Create hundreds of quality jobs in our community.
- Protect the public health of courthouse employees, jurors, and visitors.
- Build a new safe, healthy, and green downtown courthouse that can operate at a lower cost to the taxpayer and at a greater efficiency.
For more information, visit http://www.
buildingblocksforjustice.com. Thanks for your support,
Joseph H. Serota, Past President – Dade County Bar Association
It had the paid political advertisement disclaimer at the bottom. But it also inspired Ladra to come up with a list of her own. You know, since they have been less than completely honest with their $1.4 million so far campaign on this.
The Top 5 Reasons to say no to this money grab and bubble #169:
- Emergency repairs to the existing courthouse account for only $25 million of the $393 million bond that voters are being asked to tax themselves with.
The building has to be brought to standards anyway, no matter what happens Tuesday, and several Miami-Dade Commissioners are already looking at alternative ways to pay for that. They include$75 million already available through another bond already approved. - The attorneys and judges pushing for this don’t care what happens with Cielito Lindo after they move out. They are going to abandon it. In fact, former U.S. Attorney Robert Martinez, one of the referendum’s cheerleaders, told Michael Putney a few weeks ago that it could even be sold to a private owner. He could hardly keep himself from clapping.
- The ballot language says nothing about how the low-paying construction jobs will have to be filled by local workers and, like other big projects before, it could come to be that workers come in from out of town or out of state for the project. What Serota’s email doesn’t say is that it will create millions in billable work to developers.
- Miami-Dade County will have to move fast to protect the health and safety of the workers and visitors to the building regardless of the outcome of this bond referendum. They cannot wait for the four to six years it will take for the shiny, new judicial palace to be built. Commissioner Juan Zapata has already put an item on the agenda that calls for the immediate assessment of the building and emergency evacuation of Cielito Lindo, if the situation is that bad.
- This “safe, healthy, green” new courthouse everyone keeps dreaming about is just that — a dream. There is no location. There are no plans or designs. There isn’t even anyone around to explain why we need 625,000 square feet and how that is going to be allocated. There are only reports that the county has ignored for years, money from the 2004 bond that is still available and plenty of questions about the other judicial buildings and how they could be put to better use.
The truth is that the county really must address its courthouse needs. But to say that this is the best way to do it seems like a stretch. And why do they get to put a price tag on it first? Oh, because they’re spending our money, that’s why.
And it is more than a little creepy that the ones pushing it are the lawyers and judges in our legal community.
Really gives new meaning to the words “read the fine print.”
Top 5 reasons to vote no on courthouse bond tax added by Ladra on
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