When it comes to deciding how to cut Miami-Dade County employees' salaries, apparently the third time was the charm.

After failing to decide twice last week, Miami-Dade commissioners voted late Monday to present three county-employee unions with a choice: a 5 percent reduction in base pay or an equivalent reduction in holiday pay.

There is no deadline for the decision by union rank-and-file, but as they mull, the meter runs.

For each week that passes without cuts in employee pay, the county's $444 million budget deficit grows by $4 million, Miami-Dade administrators say.

That money would eventually have to come out of employee paychecks later in the year, in addition to whatever cuts are eventually imposed by the commission.

``That's why it's so important to make a decision sooner rather than later,'' county Mayor Carlos Alvarez said after Monday's vote.

Employees attending the commission meeting were not overjoyed by the decision.

``I feel the choice is a no-win situation,'' said aviation employees union President Antonio Eiroa.

``I see people losing homes. Single parents are going to be the hardest hit by this.''

DIFFERENT VIEWS

The Alvarez administration has favored the base-pay cut because it would permanently lower the county payroll.

Politically powerful employee unions, and some commissioners, have resisted that at every turn.

Eliminating holiday pay for employees who take the day off, and paying those who do work at their normal hourly rate instead of an enhanced overtime-like rate, would amount to a one-time saving unless county officials insist that it becomes permanent.

Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, who sponsored the motion, said, ``That's certainly my intention, that it be recurring.''

Commissioners have also voted to freeze raises and longevity bonuses for two years, and some other cash perks have been frozen for one year.

A package of roughly $200 million in employee pay and benefit cuts was crucial to the balanced-budget agreement struck between the mayor and commissioners last month.

Monday's deal, if approved by the unions, would settle roughly $60 million of the $208 million in needed concessions. Still to be negotiated are contracts with the most powerful employee unions: police and fire.

TIERED SYSTEM

Alvarez's original budget proposal called for a 5 percent pay cut for all county employees.

Commissioners have opposed that, arguing for a tiered system with higher-paid employees getting a higher percentage cut. But multiple motions imposing such a system have gone down to defeat.

Other commissioners have been pushing for more layoffs instead of pay cuts, but those efforts, too, have so far gone nowhere.

About 500 county employees are already slated for pink slips under the September budget agreement, said County Manager George Burgess.

On Monday, the county's solid-waste workers, who are opposed to pay cuts, introduced the notion of not working on public holidays -- presumably leaving taxpayers to celebrate with garbage rotting on their front lawns.

The motion was narrowly defeated on the first go-round, but after a failed motion to adjourn and two more hours of fruitless debate, the idea passed by the slimmest of margins, 6-5.

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