Miami-Dade budget 2015 rally is for climate change funds

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Last year, it was libraries and police officers. The year before that, the pets’ trust and firefighters.

This year, we’ll likely still see the pet people trying to get the mandate from the people respected by our elected commission, but the new rallying call against the Miami-Dade County budget is climate change. Or rather the lack of funding for climate change study or policy in the $6.8 billion budget.

Many of the speakers at the first budget hearing earlier this month asked Carlos Gimenez to allocate funds for impending sea level rise that threatens to put Miami Beach and Key Biscayne and parts of Miami underwater. Yes, he was the keynote speaker this week at the U.S. China Climate Change Summit in Los Angeles. Because he loves to sign stuff.

How is he suddenly an expert?

But after that meeting, he updated the budget with a $75,000 “resilience officer” to the sustainability department. Really? The best way to deal with climate change is to add staff?

Environmental activists say it is not enough. They want Gimenez to allocate $500,o00, or  just 0.007353% of the total $6.8 billion budget, to start implementing a “climate resilience plan” to protect Miami from what they call the biggest threat it will ever face. And several Facebook pages call for a people’s climate march on County Hall.

“The County’s Climate Change Task Force has made recommendations based on solid science, but there is NO implementation without funding,” wrote one of the activists, warning that major projects are underway that do not fully take future sea level rise into account.

And they’re making it a campaign issue.

“The Mayor promised to take a science-based approach while campaigning for his office. That commitment was made on June 9th, 2011 at a meeting with many of Miami’s most prominent environmental leaders. He should keep his promise,” was on the post for the Budget for Resilience page.

“While failing to take action now may not have impacts while the current elected officials hold office, when banks refuse to sign mortgages because insurance policies won’t be underwritten, any who fail to act today will be remembered.”

Let’s hope that Commission Chairman Jean Monestime doesn’t try to stop them from speaking.

  Carlos Gimenez, climate change, Miami-Dade budget