The Miami-Dade County public hearing Thursday might not have been suitable for children because Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon — who turns out to be human and not some kind of robot — told everyone what she really thinks of people who trash her budget. Or so it seemed. Just as Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava was […]
The most notable thing that happened at Thursday’s final Miami-Dade County budget public hearing — aside from a staffer dropping the f-bomb on a hot mic (more on that later) — is what didn’t happen: Several residents didn’t get to make public comments on the last stop for the $9 billion 2020-2021 spending plan. They […]
One by one, the mostly young, engaged activists who spoke before the Miami-Dade Commission at the first virtual public hearing on the county’s $9 billion budget said more or less the same thing: Move 10% of the funding from the police and corrections budgets — which take up almost half of the $2.2 billion general […]
The Miami-Dade County Commission will meet Thursday to consider the $9 billion proposed annual budget for 2020-2021– the first post COVID-19 budget and the last one for Mayor Carlos Gimenez and at least five commissioners who are termed out in November. And it won’t be easy. Gimenez said in his budget memo that his administration […]
The first public hearing for the 2019-2020 Miami-Dade budget Thursday was pretty uneventful. It passed 10-3 and there was very little protest. Most of the speakers simply want more money for affordable housing or some program. Nothing really seemed dire. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez must be doing the happy dance. He seems to have hoodwinked […]
Years past, residents would come to the Miami-Dade County budget hearings to beg for the restoration of police jobs or library hours or to save grant funding for this or that community-based organization. This year, the majority of the speakers at the first hearing for the $9 billion 2019-2020 budget on Thursday had one request: […]
After eight public meetings that were scantily attended — one person went to the Hialeah town hall — the public will have at least three opportunities to comment on the $9 billion 2019-2020 Miami-Dade budget before the commission votes on it next month. The first look comes courtesy of Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who has her […]
Last year, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez scolded county commissioners for plans to protect the environment, reduce crime in South Dade, create programs for children and fund fare-free circulators, like the trolleys in many cities, in unincorporated parts of Miami-Dade. We ain’t got the money, honey, the mayor told them. He complained of a five-year budget shortfall […]
Well, what do you know? Pushed into a corner by a majority of Miami-Dade County commissioners and an army of activists and angry residents to restore the funding cuts he proposed for transit services (bus routes and Metrorail hours), Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez suddenly found at least $16.2 million we didn’t have before. More found […]
Speaker after speaker at the final Miami-Dade County budget hearing Thursday night begged Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the commission to allocate more funds to address the climate change and sea level rise that threatens to put much of Miami under water. Some discussed other items — grants for community based organizations, the Underline parkway initiative, […]