When Miami-Dade commissioners closed a $444 million budget gap after marathon public hearings in September, the crucial ingredient was their decision to cut nearly $200 million from county employees' paychecks.

But three weeks into the budget year, confronted with a room full of politically influential county employees and the first vote that would actually take money out of the workers' pockets -- the commissioners froze.

The delay comes at a price.

As each week passes without the promised cuts, the county's deficit grows by another $4 million, according to Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

``If we don't act, the hole will just get larger by the day,'' Alvarez reminded the board this week.

Motion after motion went down in defeat Tuesday as board members fidgeted, paced and offered sarcastic asides about how inept they were starting to look. ``It's getting to be embarrassing,'' Commissioner Joe Martinez said from the dais.

In the end, the commissioners punted -- as they have multiple times during this bleak budget season -- failing to impose key cuts on 12,000 members of the airport, solid waste and general employees unions.

The commissioners' vacillation in front of the employee unions comes even before they have to confront the most powerful groups: police and fire.

If the roughly $200 million in pay concessions required by September's budget deal don't begin soon, county administrators warn, employee paychecks will get even lighter as the year wears on and the cuts are compressed into a shorter time frame.

But before the cuts start, commissioners have to go on record selecting the actual mechanism for reaching into union members' pockets, an act that has so far proven to be politically difficult.

``It's very different from voting previously, when it wasn't going to have an effect,'' Martinez said on Wednesday. ``But now people are facing you, and you have to tell them, `This is what we're doing.' ''

Moving forward, one of the commission's options is Alvarez's proposed 5 percent cut for all employees. Some commissioners favor a tiered system, with higher paid employees coughing up a higher percentage. A minority of the board, including Martinez and Bruno Barreiro, say they would rather increase the number of layoffs -- the current budget calls for nearly 1,000 -- than cut the pay of remaining employees.

TENSE MEETING

In the middle of a particularly frustrating impasse on Tuesday night, Commissioner Barbara Jordan blurted out, ``We voted 10-3 at the closed session to impose these cuts. Now we're facing the people and we can't do it?''

County attorney Robert Cuevas hastily interrupted, warning Jordan not to divulge details of what commissioners decided in executive session, when elected officials are allowed to meet in private to discuss labor relations.

It remains unclear what, precisely, the 10-3 vote addressed. Jordan did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.

The board retreated behind closed doors after voting not to raise taxes in September. At that point, it was obvious that layoffs and pay cuts couldn't be avoided.

There have also been public votes in which the majority of commissioners expressed support for salary cuts.

CHANGES OF HEART

In a nonbinding straw vote last month, a narrow majority of commissioners chose to slash salaries by $106 million, with the rest of the roughly $200 million coming from a series of benefit reductions.