Hialeah’s tax rate holds steady, while revenues are highest since the recession

With new construction and an increase in property values, Hialeah city councilors on Monday gave final approval to a budget with the highest projected revenues the city has had since the 2008 recession.

Hialeah’s $327,832,843 budget had an 8.2% increase in revenue from property taxes, which comes from growth in the value of existing properties plus new construction — a lot of which is west of Interstate 75. It has taken 11 years for property values to creep back to pre-recession levels, while tax rates haven’t risen since 2013 at $6.3018 for every $1,000 of taxable property. That doesn’t mean tax bills won’t go up; they will increase depending on how much the value of the property has increased.

The fiscal year begins Oct. 1 with almost $67.7 million in property tax revenue predicted.

But even though the city has more money, Mayor Carlos Hernández told the Miami Herald in an interview that expenses in 2019 are high because the city is paying more in healthcare and pensions for employees than before the recession.

“This year, we finally have the same revenues that we had in 2008 with the expenses of 2018-19,” he said at the meeting.

The city’s pension contribution increased by $2.5 million this year. It has risen by $12.9 million in the last decade, Hernández wrote in a letter to city commissioners and residents.

Two of the city’s unions, the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the local Fraternal Order of Police, agreed to increase employee contributions to the pension and reduce future benefits, Hernández wrote.

Pension reform has been a large part of contract negotiations over the last nine years, said David Alonso, the president of Hialeah’s local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Next year, the union will negotiate with the city again. Alonso said the union will probably ask to restore some of the benefits it lost in the last contract from 2017.

“Every contract seems to be worst case scenario on behalf of the employees,” he said.

Besides pensions and healthcare, Hernández said some of the increased revenues would pay for improving buildings that need upgrades such as a new roof or a fresh coat of paint.

Water and sewer and garbage bills will also be slightly higher next year.

Armando Vidal, the city’s public works director, said that an average consumer — someone who uses about 4,500 gallons of water a month — will pay almost $4 more a month starting on Jan. 1. Residents will also pay about $2 more a month for garbage services starting Oct. 1.

The increases are the result of things such as a higher consumer price index and an increase in sewer rates from Miami-Dade County.

This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 1:52 PM.