County’s Dolphins Stadium vote today seems offsides

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Talk about putting the cart before the horse. Or, rather, putting the field goal before the end zone.

Miami-Dade County Commissioners are poised to approve today Mayor Carlos “Not So Golden Boy” Gimenez’s much-ballyhooed “framework” for getting the billionaire that owns the Miami Dolphins up to $200 million in public money to renovate his private stadium, which includes a public referendum on May 14 that is, so far, dead in the water.

But, um, doesn’t the state legislature have to approve the penny addition to our tourist bed tax first?

And, er, isn’t that a longshot?

Ladra has repeatedly heard that the Dolphins Stadium “ask” may not even make it to the appropriations bill that will be discussed in the House next week. That would include the one penny additional tax plus the $3 million in annual tax rebates (the Dolphins already get $2 million), which end up being monthly $250,000 checks for Mr. Stephen Ross.

And two of our most vocal locals, State Reps. Carlos Trujillo (R-Doral) and Michael Bileca (R-Pinecrest)  are working hard to kill it in Tallahassee.

So what are we doing today? Why is there such a rush to make this happen? I mean, I know the mayor and the Dolphins have a short window and must get the referendum approved in time to make the May 14 ballot. And there is language that they can approve it without the legislature’s green light in case of an emergency.

But is this an emergency? Trujillo doesn’t think so, either.

“An emergency is having to take a kid with a broken leg to the hospital,” he told Ladra Tuesday. “An emergency is a fiscal crisis.”

This is neither. The “emergency” here is that the Dolphins need the leverage to get a Super Bowl. And now the county mayor is working for them toward that effort, despite the fact that his electorate is not in the game. Or cheering him on.

Is the commission vote supposed to send some message to Tallahasee that this is a priority for us?

Because it’s not. And they know it at the capitol. Maybe they know it better than some of us here in the 305.

On two separate ocassions, polls (and we should find out more on those later) show that at least, if not more than three quarters of the voting public are against any of our tax dollars going to a stadium deal. They don’t want to hear about all the bells and whistle details, the spoonful of sugar that will supposedly make this medicine go down.

But the people are gagging already. Remember the Marlins stadium debacle? Most people do. Vividly.

Gimenez curiously echoes the Dolphins people’s “we’re a different fish” argument in a statement to the Miami Herald that tries to separate the tales of the two stadiums. “This deal is so different from the Marlins deal,’’ he was quoted as saying. “Even to say them in the same breath is a stretch. It is like night and day.”

Um, no. It is not even a tiny, little stretch. It is so not like night and day. It is more like a publicly-financed stadium deal and a publicly-financed stadium deal.

So why is our mayor, not the Dolphins’ mayor, spending so much time and effort on something that most of his constituents — those who elected him in some part out of frustration with the Marlins deal — want no part of? I still just don’t get it. What is his motivation? Service to the public? Can’t be. Political aspirations? Wrong “tack.”

Jobs for his closest friends and family?

Anybody want to chime in?

And wouldn’t his time — and our money — be better served if he were to devote his attention to issues we really care about: Electoral reform, school safety, homelessness, economic development or even the much-neglected water and sewer system, which isn’t exactly sexy campaign fodder but is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Ladra fully expects some balking at the dais today, particularly from Commissioner Xavier “Mayor Sir” Suarez, who has become what Gimenez used to be before he became mayor: The voice of reason. And a thorn in the mayor’s side.

“Are you going to be there tomorrow,” the commissioner asked me when we ran into each other at a Coral Gables election night party Tuesday.

“Absolutely. Front and center,” I told him.

“Good. You’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

I sure hope that among his choice words will be a question to the mayor about why he is so gung-ho about this.

And whether or not they should wait for the horse to come first.