‘This is the flushest budget I’ve ever seen.’ Miami-Dade advances $10B spending plan
Miami-Dade County commissioners gave preliminary approval late Thursday to a $10 billion budget flush with remaining federal COVID dollars and a surge in property-tax revenue.
The 2023 budget proposal from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava reduces rates on property taxes by 1% and spends about $1 billion more than what’s in the current budget.
“This is the flushest budget I’ve ever seen,” Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, in office since 2002, said ahead of the board casting the first of two votes needed to pass the budget before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
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Diaz also said he expects to negotiate changes in the spending plan with Levine Cava before the final budget hearing on Sept. 20.
The Levine Cava spending plan faced little resistance at its first hearing. Commissioners Joe Martinez and Raquel Regalado proposed larger cuts in tax rates for 2023 than Levine Cava did, but the motions fizzled for lack of support before the board adjourned shortly before midnight.
It was Martinez’s first commission meeting after his Aug. 30 arrest on felonies tied to payments prosecutors say were connected to 2017 legislation the commissioner introduced but never advanced. He denies the allegations. After Regalado’s proposal for a 2% cut on property taxes charged outside city limits, Martinez proposed a 3% cut. Neither proposal got more than two votes.
“This is the people’s money,” Martinez said. He called the 1% cut in tax rates, which would still result in slightly higher tax bills for the average homeowner, “a slap in the face.”
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Preliminary budget votes followed more than three hours of public comment at the hearing.
Most speakers urged commissioners to preserve spending in the mayor’s budget proposal, which has more than $80 million for housing assistance, $50 million for eliminating septic systems, a $24 million boost for the county’s ongoing purchase of environmentally sensitive land, $8 million in retention bonuses, and hiring incentives for the under-staffed Correctional Department.
Laurel Pizzaro, 49, was one of the more than 100 people who came to the Stephen P. Clark Center in downtown Miami signed up to address commissioners for two minutes at the hearing. She urged them retain Levine Cava’s proposed housing aid, including $3 million for nonprofits representing low-income residents in eviction proceedings.
“I’m currently homeless,”Pizarro told commissioners shortly after the 5 p.m. hearing began. “When I was being evicted, I couldn’t afford a lawyer.”
Levine Cava proposed Miami-Dade’s first 11-figure budget with a spending plan that crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time in county history. She also proposed the first rate reduction in 10 years for all four of the county’s property taxes, which fund countywide expenses, municipal services outside city limits, plus the Fire Rescue and Library departments.
Because the cap on increases in taxable values hit the maximum of 3% this year, the typical Miami-Dade homeowner would still see a slight increase in county property taxes under the proposed 1% rate reduction. A house valued at $200,000 last year would see county taxes increase about $40 this year, according to a July 14 analysis by the commission’s budget office.
The budget includes about $180 million in remaining COVID funds from Washington, plus roughly $165 million more property-tax revenue than was forecast due to a surge in real estate values. While budget planners predicted a 3% increase in values countywide this year, the actual increase was 12%.
The windfall would have been about $24 million higher with flat property tax rates, according to the commission’s budget office.
“This proposed budget is smart and it’s efficient,” Levine Cava told commissioners Thursday. “This budget is also compassionate.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 4:20 AM.