Miami voters to decide if they like what a $450M public safety bond can buy
Miami voters will weigh in on two major proposals affecting government spending this fall after city officials agreed to send Mayor Eileen Higgins’ $450 million public safety bond to the November ballot.
The Miami City Commission on Thursday voted 3-2 to greenlight Higgins’ bond, named Safe & Ready Miami. It will appear on the same ballot as a statewide proposal to eliminate property taxes for the vast majority of Floridians who own the homes they live in.
Higgins wants voters to approve $450 million in spending to replace the city’s deteriorating public safety infrastructure, including by building a unified public safety building estimated to cost approximately $300 million that would house various emergency services and new headquarters for the Miami Police Department.
“The question in front of us today is, do we want to allow [voters] to choose to repair these facilities, expand the fire-rescue facilities we need,” said Higgins. “These are problems that our city should have solved 10, 15, 20 years ago, but it didn’t.”
Landing her measure on the November ballot is a success for Higgins, who has spent a great deal of political capital championing her bond measure throughout the past three months. The city this week launched a detailed website about the measure that includes an interactive map and a seven-year “phased timeline.”
The mayor’s bond proposal had been deferred three times prior to Thursday’s meeting. Up until now, Higgins had failed to secure support from three of her colleagues on the five-member City Commission. As mayor, Higgins has the power to veto legislation and to meet privately with commissioners to whip votes, but she herself does not have a vote on the commission.
Higgins flexed another mayoral muscle Thursday, taking over as chair of the meeting. Higgins made the same move in May when she took the gavel from longtime Chairwoman Christine King and tried unsuccessfully to get her bond on the August primary ballot.
Under the city charter, the mayor can act as the presiding officer of a commission meeting but cannot “move, second, debate, or vote on any matter.”
Before approving the measure, commissioners adopted a series of amendments proposed by Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela, who said he wanted additional safeguards for taxpayers before supporting the bond. One amendment requires proceeds from the future sale of the city’s current police headquarters to be used to pay down the bond debt or reduce the amount the city borrows. Another requires any grants secured specifically for the bond-funded projects to be used to reduce borrowing or pay down the debt.
A third directs the city to make its best efforts to use future developer community benefit contributions to help offset the cost of the police and fire projects when feasible.
The city attorney’s office is finalizing the ballot language before the measure appears on the November ballot.
King, who voted against the proposal, said she supports investing in the city’s police and fire departments but argued the city had not done enough community outreach or explored alternative financing before asking voters to approve the borrowing.
“I am sure we could, if we put our minds together, identify public-private partnerships that would lower the amount of money that we need to ask our residents to go into debt for,” King said. “What will break my heart is if we just move forward and rush this through, that our community rejects it.”
Commissioner Damian Pardo backed King, saying, “Like everybody up here, and as you know, police and fire, we support you 100%. But the question is, it shouldn’t be this choice of police, fire, increase tax. There are other options. We just haven’t explored them.”
Public comment reflected the divide, with several residents urging the city to let voters decide, while others warned the proposal would place too much financial burden on taxpayers.
“Many of our police and fire facilities have reached such an advanced state of disrepair that renovation is no longer an actionable or cost-effective solution,” said Miami police officer Dortis Gomez. “Replacing these outdated facilities with a modern public safety infrastructure is an investment not only for the safety of our first responders but the community that we serve.”
Others urged for more transparency.
“The bond ballot reads like a sales page,” said Morningside resident Elvis Cruz. “It’s asking us to charge $450 million on our credit card, but it leaves out an important piece of information. How much do we already owe on our credit card?”
Higgins has argued in recent months that the city’s aging police and fire facilities need to be addressed urgently. She’s described poor conditions that include mold, faulty plumbing and major electrical issues. Those infrastructure issues, the mayor has said, pose safety issues to the public by affecting things like police and fire response times.
“My dad had a heart attack. ... Fire-rescue saved his life within five minutes,” said Commissioner Ralph Rosado, who supported the measure. “I cannot, in good conscience, say that I can’t support giving voters the right to choose what they want the response times to their families to be.”
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