Miami-Dade agrees to Medley’s annex plan, but budget worries on sheriff, police grow

Medley agreed to pay about $2 million to annex commercial land from Miami-Dade County, resetting the cost for municipal growth as the county leaders warn of budget challenges ahead from new expenses and the ending of federal COVID relief.

The cost of annexation has divided county commissioners in recent months, sparking a rare veto fight with Mayor Daniella Levine Cava as she pressed for temporary relief to county coffers for giving away the 1,500 acres Medley wants to add to the 5,000 acres already within the municipal boundaries of a town with about 1,000 residents.

READ MORE: Medley, Virginia Gardens annexations in doubt after Miami-Dade mayor’s veto over fees

The county’s budget office said losing the area would cost the county’s budget about $520,000 a year because Miami-Dade collects more taxes than it pays to provide police patrols, sidewalk maintenance and other services that will transfer to Medley after the annexation.

Levine Cava initially wanted Medley to pay Miami-Dade that amount annually for seven years to cushion the tax loss and in November vetoed the commission’s initial approval of the annexation without mitigation payments. On Tuesday, she settled for four years of payments as a compromise with the municipality.

“We want to get this done today,” said Michael Pizzi, Medley’s town lawyer. Medley’s annexation passed on a 10-2 vote, with Commissioners Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Rodriguez voting no. Commissioner Kevin Cabrera was not present for the vote.

Budget challenges loomed over the annexation debate as Miami-Dade sees its federal COVID relief dollars dwindling just as new expenses await after the 2024 elections.

Florida’s Constitution requires Miami-Dade voters to elect an independent sheriff, as well as an elections supervisor and tax collector — three positions currently reporting to Levine Cava and overseeing departments that are part of Miami-Dade’s $10 billion budget.

Once those offices are spun off into independent agencies, county administrators expect costs to increase, too, particularly with Miami-Dade planning to continue providing as many police services as possible under the mayor.

“We do not know the impact of the constitutional officers,” Levine Cava told commissioners. “I am very, very concerned about the future.”

Levine Cava’s accepting four years of mitigation payments from Medley resolves one of the two annexation proposals she vetoed late last year.

The other one came from Virginia Gardens, a village that currently occupies about 180 acres and hopes to dramatically expand its boundaries by annexing roughly 1,000 acres of mostly commercial property under Miami-Dade jurisdiction.

On the same day commissioners approved the Medley annexation last year, they also passed the Virginia Gardens expansion without mitigation fees.

On Tuesday, Cabrera, who represents Virginia Gardens, won approval to delay the village’s post-veto annexation vote while the county conducts a non-binding survey of business owners in the proposed annexation area.

Levine Cava requested seven years of mitigation payments worth about $675,000 from Virginia Gardens.

With budget concerns growing, Levine Cava said she didn’t want to set the precedent of cost-free annexations for municipalities. Existing county policy calls for the payments if the county is going to lose revenue by giving up control of an area, but there are exceptions.

In late 2021, Levine Cava didn’t veto the commission’s approval of Sweetwater’s annexing 1,200 acres of prime commercial real estate near the Dolphin Mall with no requirement for fees.

The Levine Cava administration justified the Sweetwater annexation approach by citing an exemption in the county’s fee policy for municipalities with below-average tax bases.

Medley boasts a thriving warehouse and commercial sector and has about $2.8 million worth of taxable land for every resident. That’s far higher than the average in Miami-Dade countywide, where there’s about $120,000 in taxable land for every person, according to a Nov. 15, 2022, memo from the administration.

Annexation supporters rejected the justification and said it wasn’t fair to make Medley and Virginia Gardens pay fees Sweetwater was spared.

“I think it’s a terrible way to do business,” said Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, who represents Medley and Sweetwater. “I think it’s a terrible way to represent the citizens of Miami-Dade County.”

This story was originally published January 17, 2023 at 6:11 PM.