About six hours after the first public hearing began Thursday, Miami-Dade Commissioners gave preliminary approval to the mayor’s $10 billion budget, which focuses on affordable housing, infrastructure and clean water while cutting the tax rate by 1%. “This year we will continue rebuilding our community and economy stronger than ever by prioritizing critical investments in […]
Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon “Pay-to-Play” Hardemon showed his true petty colors on Tuesday when he tried to take $550,000 allocated in the county budget from the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in North Miami — which just so happens to be operated by Gepsie Metellus, who ran against him last year for the seat vacated by […]
County employees get a 2% bonus and a 6% raise The second and final public hearing on the 2021-22 Miami-Dade budget was another love fest, just like the first hearing earlier this month, with so many congratulations and thank yous that it seemed more like a baby shower than approval of a tiny tax increase […]
COVID-19 relief funds plugged the hole in the budget but what about 2022? Don’t let them fool you when they say there is no tax increase in Miami-Dade this year. The tax rate remained flat, but it didn’t roll back, which means property owners will pay a bit more because property values continue to increase […]
Even as they talk about the tough times to come and budget shortfalls expected in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, Miami-Dade Commissioners could spend an additional $19 million on furniture this year — because $21 million is evidently not enough. That’s right, the total amount in the annual budget for furniture could be increased […]
Newly elected Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the first female mayor in the county’s history, has already hired four of her top chiefs — and none of them are women. But she told Ladra this week that she was getting ready to make more announcements and that at least one of them would be a […]
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 […]