Taxes, jobs, housing: Miami mayoral candidates talk affordability at debate
Four of the city of Miami’s leading mayoral candidates faced off in a debate Thursday night at the Adrienne Arsht Center to make their cases to voters.
Miamians, the candidates recognized, are struggling to make ends meet — and affordability featured prominently throughout the evening.
What do they want to do about it? Here are some of the ideas they floated.
Property taxes
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed eliminating property taxes statewide, and in Miami’s mayoral melee, former city manager Emilio González stood as that plan’s chief advocate Thursday.
“My thing,” he said, “is that I really want to support the governor in doing away with property taxes” on homesteaded homes.
Revenues from taxes on those homes make up roughly 10% of the city’s budget, González said, adding that the city could potentially cut an equivalent amount of spending to protect critical services currently financed by those funds.
He did not specify what cuts could fill the hole left in the city’s budget by such a tax cut.
Former city of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell demurred.
“It’s very kind of Gov. DeSantis to give away city tax dollars,” he quipped. But, he said, local governments need to protect their local autonomy and “fight for that — so that the state doesn’t overstep.”
Instead, he proposed, the city should adjust its millage rate — basically, the amount homeowners pay for every $1,000 their home is worth.
Miami’s current millage is 7.136, the seventh highest of Miami-Dade’s 36 constituent property tax-setting municipalities, according to the county property appraiser. Russell said that, under his plan, “your millage, for the average homesteaded house, will be the same or less than it was last year.”
He also floated exempting “qualifying seniors” from paying “city taxes” if they’ve owned their home for more than 25 years.
Xavier Suarez, a former city mayor and county commissioner, said the state government’s proposal to eliminate property taxes “makes absolutely no sense.” Instead, he proposed increasing the homestead exemption to cover up to the median value of a home in Miami-Dade County — which, on the market, is $417,000, according to the Property Appraiser’s Office.
Currently, homesteaded homeowners can deduct the first $50,000 in value from the first $75,000 of their home’s taxable worth.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins agreed that the homestead exemption could be expanded, though she did not specify by how much.
Affordable housing
Higgins proposed forming an affordable housing trust fund — a city-run savings account set aside to finance affordable housing projects — like the one created by the county government to support cost-burdened residents, those who spend at least 30% of their income on rent.
She also highlighted the need to build more affordable housing. That’s “the only way to solve our affordability crisis,” she said, and the city government can do so by building such housing on underutilized city-owned land. Higgins pointed out that land-intensive projects, like the Miami Freedom Park soccer stadium project, could have included housing on the premises.
Standing to her right, Gonzalez rejected the premise. “We cannot build people the homes that they want,” he said. “We can talk about building affordable housing, workforce housing, fine. It’s never going to meet demand.”
Attracting large companies and high-paying jobs
It’s great that tech and finance have taken a liking to Miami, the candidates agreed. That push to attract high-paying industries was about the only praise they had for outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez.
But Russell qualified the credit he gave the current mayor for “cheerleading” investment in Miami. “Let me give him an absolutely poor grade on leveraging that investment in Miami for the residents who live here now.”
While the finance and tech migration has brought capital, Russell said, it’s created a tale of two cities. Lower millage could help mitigate that dynamic, he said, adding that Miami should “open the doors” to investment while taking care to not leave current residents behind.
Workforce development
That corporate migration can be positive, Higgins said, but Miami must ensure that outsiders don’t snatch up all of those well-paid jobs. Miamians, she emphasized, need to be educated and “ready to take [those jobs].”
Higgins pointed to Miami-Dade College and Florida International University’s job training programs as successful avatars of the “educational network” the city should be promoting. She also held up her Elevate District 5 initiative, which, among other things, Higgins said trains local businesses in using AI.
Echoing the county commissioner’s sentiments, González called it “wonderful” that so many “high net worth” companies have moved down to Miami.
“It increased our tax base,” he said. But, he added, “they need to hire locals — not bring in their workers.”
This story was produced with financial support from supporters including The Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O’Keefe, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
