County moves special taxing district funds to cities' control

As part of the effort to right the ship with the special taxing districts that were getting charged too much or too little, county commissioners will consider on Wednesday a move to put the control of those neighborhoods — and their special taxing monies — in the hands of municipalities.

Not only will cities and towns and villages get the special taxing districts that already exist into their own budgets and out of the county’s. the resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Esteban Bovo, also allows the municipal governments to create new taxing districts in the future.

Special taxing districts are neighborhoods where mostly residential property owners take a vote to pay an additional tax which then provides for additional services — like guardhouse security, street lights or grounds maintenance.

In June, Mayor Carlos Gimenez acknowledged that the county had been overcharging 234 taxing districts and that those funds had been used inappropriately to cover the expenses in other taxing districts where residents were not paying enough.

Of the existing special taxing districts, 203 are in municipalities that can take control, according to the ordinance background info in Wednesday’s agenda. Most of those are in Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables and Miami Lakes, where Councilman Manny Cid — who is now running for mayor — will welcome them with open arms.

“It’s just more efficient for us to provide those services,” Cid told Ladra.

It’s also a way for the town to transfer costs like, oh, I don’t know, say lake maintenance, for example, off of the general budget and into special taxing districts. Just watch them sprout up. The reasoning: Why should people who don’t live on the lake pay for its maintenance?

And the potential proliferation of special taxing districts — an easy way to get around raising taxes, although you are raising them for some — is only part of the problem. Not that they aren’t piling up already, even in light of the mismanagement exposed months ago on this blog. In fact, there are seven new special taxing districts on Wednesday’s agenda.

On the one hand, Cid is probably right about the services. A municipal government might be able to provide them more efficiently than Miami-Dade, which was caught last year overcharging some districts to subsidize others in a budget mess that county spokespeople quickly characterized simply as sloppy accounting.

And it frees up county funds and personnel. “Revenue supporting the function, as well as the expense, would no longer be part of the county’s budget,” says a memo with Wednesday’s agenda from County Attorney Abigail Price-Williams. “The positions supporting this function would be eliminated from the county’s table of organization and staff currently supporting this function would be reassigned.”

But this opens up a whole new avenue of abuse, perhaps a whole new cottage industry of consultants who build their practice off creating special taxing districts. Whether they are needed or not. That’s what we have publicists and consultants for — to convince the taxpayers in certain boundaries that they suddenly need street lights or a roving security guard to keep their homes safe.

And think about the political shenanigans that have gone on in the 305 even without introducing this new game. I mean, one thing is Miami Lakes. But who among us wants to trust cities like Sweetwater and Hialeah with this new power?

The resolution is set to pass anyway on Wednesday. This is second reading, so this makes it law.

Expect follow up story in a couple of months about the many new special taxing districts sprouting up.

Carlos Gimenez, Esteban Bovo, Manny Cid, special taxing districts

County moves special taxing district funds to cities’ control added by Ladra on January 20, 2016
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