Miami-Dade mayor unveils painful budget season 2, transportation cuts

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First in a series on the Miami-Dade 2026-27 budget

Budget season is back. Hide your wallets. The annual ritual has begun.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has unveiled her proposed $14.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2026-27 (Ladra suspects it is higher), and if last year’s budget process felt like a root canal without anesthesia, buckle up. This one promises to be just as uncomfortable — only this time the county has fewer rabbits left to pull out of the fiscal hat.

The mayor’s message to residents is reassuring enough: no tax-rate increase, no sweeping cuts to nonprofits like those floated (and later abandoned) last year, and a continued commitment to public safety, parks, transportation and fiscal responsibility.

Translation: Everything is fine… except for the parts that aren’t.

Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava will have two budget ‘town halls’

The biggest flashing warning light is transportation.

Miami-Dade’s transit system is facing yet another budget cliff, and the proposed solution isn’t exactly a long-term fix. Instead of raising fares or increasing the gas tax — ideas that went over like a lead balloon last year — the administration proposes raiding an $89 million reserve that had been accumulating for future rail expansion.

Because everybody knows that’s never gonna happen.

The reserve, known by the wonderfully bureaucratic name Transportation Infrastructure Improvement District, was created to help fund future SMART Plan rail expansion. Remember the SMART Plan? Those ambitious rail extensions that were supposed to transform transportation across Miami-Dade?

They’re still on the map.

The money? Not so much.

After this budget, the reserve is expected to be essentially drained just to keep today’s buses and trains operating, which doesn’t sound really smart.

The proposal also recommends eliminating 12 bus routes — a dozen routes, poof, gone — and shortening service hours on dozens of others by ending service before 6 a.m. and after 10 p.m.

Read related: Miami-Dade passes final $12.9 million budget — sans transit fare increases

County officials note those routes account for only about 2% of weekday ridership. But tell that to the people who ride them. Working a late shift could suddenly mean walking home.

Commissioner Marleine Bastien already warned that seniors in her district rely on those buses to buy groceries, get to doctor’s appointments and simply live their lives.

To the countywide spreadsheet, Route 272 may be a line item. To the person waiting at the bus stop at 5:30 in the morning, it’s the way to work. Or to the doctor’s office. Or to the food distribution site.

The administration deserves credit for trying to reduce spending before asking taxpayers for more money.

Departments are expected to squeeze another $79 million in spending reductions after already reporting $42 million in efficiency measures. More than 400 vacant positions would be eliminated under La Alcaldesa’s plan. Whether that’s enough for Commissioner Rene Garcia is yet to be seen.

It’s also worth noting that eliminating vacant positions is politically easier than eliminating occupied ones. Nobody has to clean out a desk.

The “good news” here is that the property tax rate remains flat. That’s likely to be welcome news for homeowners already dealing with rising insurance premiums, utility bills, gas, groceries and just about everything else. Property taxes will rise a little, because property values rose. But there was likely no way the county could offer the “roll-back” rate, which would allow the actual taxes (not the tax rate) to stay flat.

The mayor also isn’t proposing the transit fare hike or gas-tax increase that dominated last year’s budget debate.

So yes, there is some restraint here. But Ladra can’t help but feel they are robbing the basics from the poor departments, the ones that affect people’s lives the most, to pay the bill for some luxury items. We have to do a deep dive in the next few weeks to see what’s not being cut, which could be just as important or more.

And the elephant wandering through every budget meeting is November’s proposed statewide property-tax amendment. If voters approve it, local governments across Florida could lose substantial revenue.

Miami-Dade is trying to prepare for that possibility now by trimming spending and avoiding new recurring obligations. That’s prudent budgeting.

But it also means this year’s difficult conversations could look easy compared with next year’s.

Now comes the part where commissioners sharpen their pencils. Between now and September, expect:

• Commissioners fighting to save bus routes.
• Lobbyists defending programs headed for the chopping block.
• Advocacy groups packing commission chambers.
• Residents wondering why government always seems to discover a budget crisis in July.

Some of the mayor’s proposals will survive. Some almost certainly won’t. That’s how the Miami-Dade budget process works.

Every July, everyone agrees the numbers don’t add up. Every September, they somehow do.

Until the following July rolls around again.

Only in Miami could a $14.3 billion budget still leave everyone asking the same question: “Wait… we’re broke?”

This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.