Miami-Dade tries to end CARES fight with cities with $100 million in COVID help

Miami-Dade is nearly tripling a planned allocation of federal CARES Act money for local cities in an effort to defuse a public, bitter fight over the dollars that went to the county but not municipalities.

County commissioners on Tuesday voted to reserve $100 million for city expenses and relief programs from the $474 million Miami-Dade received from Florida through the federal legislation passed in March. The administration of Mayor Carlos Gimenez had previously proposed giving $30 million to cities.

“I want to see if we can put this county-and-city issue to bed as soon as possible,” Commissioner Dennis Moss said after introducing the package, which passed unanimously.

The county plan falls short of what cities wanted. While the Moss resolution caps city-run relief programs at $25 million, municipalities submitted requests this week for about $60 million in CARES money for rental assistance, business support and other local efforts to make up for money lost during the coronavirus crisis.

In all, according to Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon, cities requested about $135 million from Miami-Dade. And that doesn’t include expenses from Hialeah, the lone municipality not to submit a breakdown of COVID-related expenses this week after Miami-Dade requested them.

Cities’ reported COVID expenses are far larger than Moon’s tally, but Miami-Dade expects Washington to cover most local expenses through disaster grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is requiring local governments to pay about 12% of COVID costs, and Miami-Dade would use the CARES dollars to cover that expense for cities.

How the aid breaks down

While Miami opened the door for litigation over the CARES money this week, other mayors are reluctantly accepting the $100 million as the best they’re going to get from Miami-Dade.

“I don’t know if there’s another option at this point in time,” said Pinecrest Mayor Joseph Corradino. He had argued for cities to get a larger share of the CARES dollars in order to have the money spent more effectively. “We’re the level of government closest to the people. I think we understand our localities infinitely better than the county commissioners do.”

Miami-Dade has already approved more than $100 million in CARES funding for relief programs available to residents and businesses countywide, no matter if they live within city limits or in the unincorporated areas where the county provides municipal services. That includes $35 million for restaurants and restaurant workers, $35 million for home meal delivery to seniors, $20 million to help the needy, $10 million in rent relief, and $20 million for business loans.

“We’ve never said we weren’t going to share money with the cities,” Gimenez told commissioners. “It can’t be a blank check... We’re not going to have 34 different municipalities administering the same program.”

The county also plans to use about $80 million of CARES to cover its government expenses related to COVID, including police payroll for enforcing mask rules and educational campaigns encouraging people across Miami-Dade to practice social distancing.

This week, city governments submitted their estimates of COVID expenses eligible for CARES dollars or FEMA reimbursement. They showed a range of costs, from Miami Beach spending $1,800 on food cards for people experiencing homelessness to Miami spending $11 million citywide retrofitting facilities to better prevent COVID spread.

Key Biscayne recorded $9,000 for face shields and $350 in Zoom licenses. In Miami Gardens, the city wants to spend about $9 million on meals and rental relief for residents.

Miami’s budget has about $27 million in future COVID relief costs, for help with utility bills, food, rent and business assistance. Mayor Francis Suarez said that part of a $90 million request from Miami for CARES dollars that could have been helping residents and business owners already if Miami-Dade had let cities distribute the relief.

“It’s a shame,” he said. “We could have helped many businesses and fed many more people by now.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 8:40 PM.