Commissioners likely to discuss mayor’s gas tax gaffe
Late Monday, with less than 24 hours for county commissioners to review it, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava released her proposed $11 billion 2023-2024 budget — the largest ever, with a 20% increase in capital improvement spending, due much to federal dollars. She boasts about a 1% tax cut and what the mayor calls a “gas tax holiday” — which only came after her office forgot to renew the 6-cent gas tax.
Now she’s calling it a holiday? That’s disingenuous since the gas tax also collects from tourists and out-of-towners. And she’s not fooling anybody. Several commissioners are concerned enough about the lapse that it should become a major point of discussion.
“Who was responsible? Somebody obviously dropped the ball,” said Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera. “Who was responsible for tracking this?
“And it’s not just this. What other revenue sources are out there the mint be expired or expiring,” Cabrera added. “We gotta make sure nothing falls through the cracks.”
Read related: Miami-Dade commissioners more than double compensation in budget vote
Commissioner Anthony Rodriguez has a separate agenda item before the commission to relevy the gas tax — which funds roadway and transit projects — for the next 30 years, through December 2053. But that won’t happen until January because the county missed a July 1 deadline to have it just continue on. So there will be a three month “holiday.”
According to the item, the Miami-Dade Office of Management and Budget would administer and oversee the distribution of these funds from now on. Isn’t that the same people who fucked it up?
“This item does not delegate any authority to the Mayor or Mayor’s designee,” the agenda memo states.
You know, por si las moscas and La Alcaldesa decides to call another “holiday.”
The $18 million lost in gas tax funds for the next three months account for half of what the mayor called $36 million in “savings” for residents. But remember, not all the gas tax funding comes from residents. So, that’s a lie.
So is calling this budget a tax cut.
This is La Alcaldesa’s third budget, so one would think she has got the gist by now. She knows it’s not really a tax cut. Not when property values have gone up a whopping 12%. Not when garbage fees and other service fees are rising.
Her statement says she is “balancing short and long-term challenges by continuing to invest in housing, transportation, small businesses, the environment and families, while prioritizing much-needed infrastructure projects and critical life-saving services for all residents.”
Yeah, that’s what they always say.
“With this year’s budget, we’re creating a more future-ready Miami-Dade – building for today and investing in tomorrow,” Levine Cava said in her statement. “This year, as we continue offering much-needed relief to many residents, we’re also building the foundation for future prosperity and growth. We have proposed a budget that is smart, compassionate, and puts people first. It builds on last year’s historic tax cut while continuing to make key investments in our community’s core priorities.”
If she’s so focused on the future, why did the commissioners and the public get this budget late Monday afternoon, about 18 hours before the meeting start where they will vote on it for the first time. The tax millage rate will be set and can’t increase after that. Why are the budget workshops where she will take community input, happening after the fact?
The commission could vote Tuesday on a maximum millage rate. It can go down from there after the workshops, but it can’t go up. So they can’t take that $38 million and use it for something else, like finally funding the Pet’s Trust that a huge majority of voters passed in a non-binding 2012 vote. We can’t suggest to use those savings for flood mitigation or more bus routes or anything once the commission votes for that 1% reduction.
Some commissioners might try to increase that one percent because there’s room for that. Or they might want to keep things at the same rate until after the public hearings and input. What a concept!
Some of the key investments in the proposed budget, as described by the mayor:
- Housing: We will continue making progress on the goals laid out in last year’s HOMES Plan, expanding the inventory of workforce and affordable housing and providing relief to renters and homeowners. We’re also growing our Office of Housing Advocacy, to connect more residents to critical services.
- Transportation: We are funding key improvements to our transit system such as the Better Bus Network; completing the South Corridor, part of the SMART Plan; and making important upgrades across the MetroRail and MetroMover systems.
- Public safety: Public safety remain a key priority, with funding for crime prevention programs that increase safety by recovering firearms and stolen vehicles and make all our neighborhoods safer, and funding for the third year of the Peace and Prosperity Plan which creates pathways to opportunity for high-risk youth.
- Environment: Our environment is the cornerstone of our prosperity. This year’s budget will include funding to protect our Bay and to tackle major climate threats, by accelerating septic to sewer conversion projects, preventing flooding by investing in stormwater infrastructure, funding the removal and disposal of sargassum, and protecting residents and visitors from extreme heat – including $500K of new funding to grow our tree canopy.
- Small businesses: We are funding opportunities so all small businesses can thrive in our County, through community Development Block grants which encourage economic development; minority-owned small business grants that support local entrepreneurs; and completion of our procurement disparity study to even the playing field for small and local businesses.
- Families: We’re partnering with Miami-Dade College to make obtaining an associates degree FREE for more eligible families here in Miami-Dade and expanding child daycare programs to create options and prosperity for working families.
- Older adults: To create more opportunity for older adults, we’re strengthening programs like Meals on Wheels and providing almost 1 million meals to older and at-risk adults. We’re also funding wraparound services for families and providing 70,000 one-way trips to our county’s Adult Day Care Centers.
The proposed budget — all three volumes of it — and the budgets of past years can be found on the county website. The mayor’s statement said there was information there about town halls, but Ladra could not find it. Maybe they haven’t been set yet.
I mean, what’s the point now?
Proposed Miami-Dade budget includes fake ‘tax break’ and real fee increases added by Ladra on
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