The lines went out the door and around the block -- residents eager to tell their elected leaders they're not doing their jobs.

Frustrated by job losses, by climbing property tax rates even as their home values drop, by hefty pay raises to an elite group of bureaucrats, the people spoke up for eight hours on Thursday. It was like a full-time job -- and it paid off.

By 4:30 a.m. Friday, Miami-Dade County Commissioners voted 8-5 to keep the tax rate where it is. Not even the small increase that Mayor Carlos Alvarez proposed to help close a $427 million budget hole was granted.

This means the county's hole just grew into a $444 million crater.

Alvarez's proposed 5 percent across-the-board pay cut for the county's 30,000 workers will only close $100 million of that gap. Now that the majority of commissioners said ``No!'' to a tax hike, they must say yes to a larger pay cut for employees, starting at the stratospheric top -- at the county manager's job.

It's going to get uglier, folks.

STRAP ON YOUR SEAT BELTS

The police and firefighter unions are crying poverty even as they earn more than many professionals in this town. The firefighters already have been dropping notes in little old ladies' doorsteps warning that homeowners' well-being will be in danger if one penny is cut from firefighters' pay. Talk about a hose job.

I realize police and firefighters risk their lives every day, but they must realize that the mayor -- a former police chief -- already has protected their jobs by vowing not to lay off one first responder among the 1,700 county workers now on the chopping block. It would be political suicide for any commissioner to call for fewer cops or firefighters, too. But you can't give up even a little?

STARTING AT THE TOP

Everybody should be sucking it up and realizing that the good old days are gone. Maybe in a few years, maybe in a decade, they'll return. We just don't know. For now, we know we have to close that $444 million crater.

Start with the highest salaries and bring out the machete.

Alvarez was wrong to say ``we're all in this together'' and propose the same pay cut of 5 percent for all workers.

When I asked him about this a few weeks ago, he said when times were flush everybody got raises, so the same percent should apply to all. But there were also huge bonuses for managers during that time and big spikes for union workers based not on their performance but just for sticking around long enough to get a huge bump.

I for one don't resent people earning good money for good work. The problem has been that the county has had a checkered performance, at best, in delivering services. Transit remains a mess. Roadways are still clogged. The mismanagement at the housing program was criminal. Hundreds of millions of dollars in overages at the airport, the performing arts center, and on and on.

Commissioners will have to do the hard work that the ``strong'' mayor wussed out on.

He should have proposed cutting salaries of those who earn more than $250,000 by 15 percent or more. Those earning $100,000 or more would have to lose 10 percent at least. Those earning more than $50,000 would have to survive on 5 percent less, and those making even less would get lower cuts.

But no, he stuck to his guns and the power keg blew.

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