With zero discussion, and more than two months before the first budget hearing — and the loud boasts about not raising taxes begin — Miami-Dade Commissioners gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a tax increase for more than 116,000 property owners. Yes, a tax increase. In June. The administration has found that these property owners, in […]
The takeaway from Wednesday’s Miami-Dade School Board meeting is not that members gave their attorney 20 days to present options on taking legal action against the county mayor or the state or whoever it is that is responsible for the backlog at the Value Adjustment Board that has caused annual budget shortfalls in the hundreds […]
Looks like the overpaid Miami-Dade County attorneys are going to have to do some actual work. The county filed a motion Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the United Teachers of Dade against Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez, blaming him for shortfalls in hundreds of millions in taxes that the Miami-Dade School Board was […]
While she may have borne the wrath of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez, county Budget Director Jennifer Glazer Moon got a lot of love, understanding and forgiveness from the commission when they voted Thursday to approve the do-over budget. And she also got the fine imposed by the mayor lifted. County commissioners were forced […]
A group of teachers represented by United Teachers of Dade, which represents more than 35,000 educators and school employees in the fourth largest school district in the country, say that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez has violated the state constitution and shortchanged students at Miami-Dade Public Schools. They plan to file a lawsuit Friday […]
Nobody thinks that the single, unimportant mathematical error made by the county when advertising the budget hearings on page 6B of the Miami Herald is that big a deal. To err is human. And while nobody expects that we should just immediately forgive and forget, either, the punishment should fit the crime for those who […]
Oooops. Ladra doesn’t know if it was the worst case scenario budget or the best case scenario budget, but the annual budget passed by the Miami-Dade Commission in September and under which the county has been operating for almost two months since Oct. 1 is invalid. So says the Florida Department of Revenue, which is […]
We all heard Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez say it repeatedly last month and in August: He had saved the day. There were not going to be any layoffs at the Miami-Dade Police Department. Well, either he lied or he flip flopped, because at least three police department employees received notices Wednesday that their […]
No me digas. For months, the lowest paid county workers — garbage collectors, librarians, bus drivers, janitors — fought to get back the 5% they had been providing for five years to a bogus “healthcare fund” that was used to balance the budget. Finally, they got that deduction from their paycheck restored, but Miami-Dade Mayor […]
You could see it coming: As Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez found money here for this, money there for that, signing five union contracts and balancing the budget without cutting jobs or closing libraries, the anger that drove a petty recall effort launched emotionally by a father in mourning is pretty much out of […]