Miami-Dade’s mayor spares MetroConnect transit service in latest budget changes

Just two weeks from losing county funding, Miami-Dade’s MetroConnect shuttle service was spared in the latest version of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s budget proposal and its set of temporary fixes to cover revenue shortfalls.

The free rides offered by MetroConnect cars in 13 zones across Miami-Dade will soon start costing $3.75 — a dollar more than what a bus ride would cost in Levine Cava’s 2026 budget proposal.

Facing pressure to reverse austerity measures ahead of the County Commission’s final budget vote next week, Levine Cava on Friday unveiled a series of short-term funding patches that allowed her to drop most of the remaining friction points in her spending plan.

In a statement, Levine Cava credited her administration’s work throughout the summer and extra surplus dollars from independent government agencies like the Tax Collector’s Office in explaining the move away from the austerity measures she first proposed in July.

“Through hard work and hard choices, my administration presented a balanced budget that closed a significant gap without cutting core services or raising tax rates,” the mayor said of the initial budget proposal unveiled July 15. “After unprecedented community engagement and negotiations with our Board of County Commissioners, we identified additional savings and recovered unspent funds returned by the constitutional offices, allowing us to restore important community priorities and further strengthen our budget.”

That includes diverting $4.5 million from a reserve for future transit projects to cover most of MetroConnect’s $5.5 million cost. MetroConnect was originally listed as an $11 million expense in the budget that Levine Cava unveiled in July. To save money in 2026, MetroConnect will drop some low-ridership zones, trim operating hours and impose a three-mile cap on trips, said Natalia Jaramillo, communications director for Levine Cava.

Launched in 2020 as a way to cover gaps in bus service, MetroConnect allows people to book rides to a limited number of destinations within designated zones, including South Dade, Kendall and North Dade. Levine Cava initially proposed eliminating the service as part of a broader plan to close what she said was a $402 million revenue gap that Miami-Dade was facing in the 2026 budget year, which begins Oct. 1.

Levine Cava had walked back the bulk of her proposed cuts in the lead up to the commission’s first budget hearing, which started on Sept. 4 and stretched into the next morning as charity leaders pleaded for more funding and commissioners pressed the administration to find more savings. The commission’s final budget votes are scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 18 after another public hearing, which begins at 5 p.m. at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami.

With the memo released Friday, Levine Cava backed off several more austerity measures. Those include:

Restoring current funding levels to charity grants. Jewish Community Services, Farm Share and other non-profits providing social services received a combined $17 million from Miami-Dade this year. For the 2026 budget, Levine Cava, a former social worker, initially proposed eliminating most charity funding. She backed off that plan, saying there was money to fund grants at 70% of their 2025 levels. In her latest memo, Levine Cava said her budget now offers grants equal to their 2025 amounts .

Eliminating the remaining cut in arts funding. While the mayor proposed cutting arts and culture grants by $13 million in July, she restored most of that funding last month in a revised spending proposal. On Friday, the remaining $1.3 million was put back in her budget.

Making rescue helicopters a countywide expense. Miami-Dade’s fire union fought Levine Cava over her plan to stop using a countywide property tax to fund four Fire Rescue helicopters that land throughout Miami-Dade. The union argued that Levine Cava’s plan to shift the $28 million expense to the Fire Rescue Department was unfair because that agency is funded solely with a special tax only paid by owners of property located outside of Miami and the other cities that have their own fire departments. On Friday, Levine Cava scrapped her plan and moved the $28 million helicopter expense back into the countywide budget.

To pay for some of the restored funding, Levine Cava said she would order various agencies — including her own office — to keep vacant positions open longer to save millions in payroll costs. She also said the county has some extra dollars from refined surplus estimates for the 2025 budget year ending Sept. 30.

Though Levine Cava backed off most austerity measures in her latest budget proposal, a 50-cent increase in Metrorail and bus fares remains in the plan. If approved by commissioners on Sept. 18, the first fare increase since 2013 will bring the cost of transit rides to $2.75 per trip on a bus or a train. Shuttle service for people with disabilities are scheduled to increase 25 cents to $3.75. Metromover will remain free.

This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.