Miami Beach urges expansion of 1% sales tax to help homeless, domestic violence victims
After Miami Beach voters signaled their support last month for the expansion of the county’s homeless and domestic violence tax, city commissioners voted Wednesday to request that the Florida Legislature permit the collection of the 1% food and beverage tax at Miami Beach restaurants.
The sales tax, which the Legislature created in 1993, is collected at restaurants in cities across Miami-Dade County except for those that already have a resort tax, like Miami Beach, Surfside and Bal Harbour.
Miami Beach restaurants that serve alcohol and bring in more than $400,000 in annual sales would lose their exemption if the Legislature votes to lift it and Miami-Dade commissioners agree to collect the tax.
The tax money would help fund the homeless initiatives of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and go toward the construction and operation of domestic violence shelters in the county. The tax would charge consumers $1 on a $100 tab, with $0.85 going to homeless programs and $0.15 going to domestic violence resources.
“Money helps solve these problems,” said Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who unsuccessfully attempted to expand the 1% tax to Miami Beach in 2017. “It will save lives.”
Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and Steven Meiner were the only commissioners to vote against it. The Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce also opposed the measure, saying an additional tax would place an “undue burden” on restaurants and that the city should find a better way to fund homeless and domestic violence resources.
Rosen Gonzalez, who said the restaurant she and her fiancee own in Mid Beach would be affected by the homeless tax, questioned why voters would decide to impose an additional tax on restaurants.
“I understand that the voters passed this, but I have to say that, who in their right mind says, ‘Let’s tax ourselves?’ Who does that?” she said.
When someone in the crowd shot back to say that a majority of voters supported it, Rosen Gonzalez said there was no organized opposition to the referendum.
“So vote against it,” said Arriola, who sponsored the resolution. “The votes are there to pass it. Vote against it and go down in history as voting against the will of the voters.”
Responding to hesitancy among some commissioners, Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book said he would commit to negotiating a reimbursement agreement with the city to offset the roughly $3.3 million that the city currently pays for its in-house homeless outreach services. He said his goal is to find housing for the city’s current homeless population in the first two years after the tax is expanded.
“If we do not commit dollars to move those folks into housing, we have failed you and we have failed us,” he said.
Constance Collins, the president and executive director of the Lotus House Women’s Shelter, said she voted for the November referendum as a Miami Beach resident and urged the city to pay its “fair share” toward helping domestic violence victims.
“Every night, beds are full. We have women on the wait list every single night with children,” she said. “This money is essential to saving lives. We have waited for many, many years. I would say with certainty, lives have been lost because our community is not contributing our fair share.”
Meiner said he opposed the additional tax because the city already has the capabilities to deal with its homeless issues. He said the city offers shelters to homeless people, but they often do not accept help. Alba Tarre, the city’s interim Housing and Community Service Outreach director, told commissioners the city has never turned away a homeless person seeking shelter and, on average, has a surplus of about 12 beds. The city currently funds 47 shelter beds at different locations and is working on funding four more beds at Lotus House, Tarre said.
Echoing concerns from the Chamber of Commerce, Meiner also said he was uneasy about how the additional tax would increase the overall sales tax on the Beach to 10%, putting the city’s restaurants at a competitive disadvantage compared to restaurants in mainland Miami that currently charge an 8% sales tax.
“I am concerned about that headline that is going to go out there,” he said.
Book said the vast majority of the nearly 900 homeless people in the county are “shelter resistant,” and that the Homeless Trust is working to secure housing for them and provide case management.
He said he does not believe the city’s restaurants will be negatively impacted by the new tax.
“On the 10% issue, all I can tell you is this: Your voters spoke,” Book said. “They know that a large part of this is exported. I don’t believe you’re going to hurt your restaurants at all.”
Jessica Knopf, owner of the Sriracha House in South Beach, said there is a clear homeless issue near her restaurant on Washington Avenue. But after making it through the pandemic, dealing with price hikes caused by supply-chain issues and increasing employee wages, Knopf said an extra tax — not to mention the possibility that the City Commission will vote to ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m. — would make it even harder to run a small business in South Beach.
“I would just hope that it doesn’t go through,” she said of the tax. “We just can’t take anymore.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 5:56 PM.
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