Herald recommends: Tell power-hungry state to get lost, Miami-Dade County voters | Editorial

Florida’s Republican leaders have become the 800-pound gorilla, stomping into counties, trampling local officials’ authority and handcuffing them as they seek to do right by the constituents who elected them.

These actions have significant ramifications for Miami-Dade County, whose autonomy is affirmed in its Home Rule Charter, which Florida voters approved in 1956 and is enshrined in the state Constitution.

That should have been the end of the story. Period.

However, Republican lawmakers, who are in the majority, and Gov. DeSantis have for years unnecessarily meddled in counties’ local operations.

County Amendment 1 would amend the County Charter to require the mayor and county commissioners to take an oath of office affirming that, “They will support, protect and defend the Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter and the government of Miami-Dade County.”

Home rule is simple: It lets a county establish its own form of government via its charter. It can enact ordinances, codes and resolutions without state approval. Basically, home-rule counties have the authority to act in the best interests of their constituents and municipalities.

But we’ve seen a troubling amount of state intrusion in recent years. DeSantis’ unilateral edicts tying the hands of local elected officials who wanted to take stringent measures to protect people from COVID-19 was just one of the more egregious.

In 2011, Florida enacted a preemption measure to severely restrict local authority to regulate firearms — with language saying local legislators could be punished if they violated it. In 2019, the Legislature ginned up three bills to restrict local governments from enacting or enforcing bans on single-use plastic straw. Though the bills died, lawmakers attached a five-year moratorium on straw ordinances, which would have reversed those already in existence, to unrelated legislation elsewhere. On this one, DeSantis stepped up and vetoed it.

In 2021, state lawmakers threw out a vote of Key West residents who dared pushed back at the ballot box against huge cruise ships causing environmental damage and crowding narrow streets with passengers. This one, DeSantis signed into law.

Here’s what’s driving County Amendment 1: In 2019, the Legislature tried to abolish the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, which operates five local toll roads, and replace it with a state-run agency. The county has fought that measure off, for now, but there are worrisome rumblings that the state wants to take over the county’s prime economic engines: the airport and the seaport.

Here’s what else is behind this amendment: State legislators who have termed out are angling for their next gig and some hear the siren call of the Miami-Dade County Commission. This charter amendment puts them on notice that they are beholden to the county, not to their pals in the state Legislature.

In other words, they can’t sell the county, meaning us, out.

If they do, the consequences are mostly political, but public for all to see. If the county, for instance, wants to sue the state for violating its home-rule charter, the oath taken can be used as leverage against a commissioner who opposes such a lawsuit. Plus, challengers can bring it up — repeatedly — at election time.

Every commissioner should defend Miami-Dade’s home-rule charter. It’s their job to protect the interests of their constituents. The Miami Herald Editorial Board recommends voting YES on Miami-Dade County Referendum 1.

Miami-Dade County Referendum 2

Miami-Dade County Referendum 2 asks county voters to amend the Home Rule Charter — the “constitution” for county government — to specify that ownership or authority for Miami International Airport, PortMiami and Miami-Dade Expressway Authority can’t be transferred without voter approval first.

If that sounds a bit like a solution in search of a problem — the county already owns and operates those entities, after all — you’re not far off. But the measure was placed on the ballot after commissioners learned a bitter lesson from the county’s fight with the state over the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority and also from other potential threats to local control that have increasingly been coming from the state.

This amendment — along with the closely related County Amendment 1 — is, sadly, a necessary safeguard. It’s designed to protect what belongs to Miami-Dade taxpayers amid increasing forays by Tallahassee to preempt local control.

Take a look at recent history, starting with the case of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, or MDX. In 2019, the Legislature decided to abolish MDX in favor of its own agency, the Greater Miami Expressway Authority, or GMX. It was a blatant power grab, with the prize being five toll roads MDX has operated since 1994.

A legal fight ensued, based largely on Miami-Dade’s Home Rule charter. In the end, the county prevailed (though the state may appeal) but commissioners by then had realized they needed to find a longer-term way to protect county-owned assets from any other governments or elected officials trying to take control. Over the summer, the commission adopted a resolution to put this issue on the ballot.

The attempt to subsume MDX wasn’t the only warning sign, either. Tallahassee has shown an increasing desire to wrest control from local governments. In 2018, the question of whether Miami-Dade should have an elected sheriff was put on a statewide ballot and passed. (It did not reach the 60% threshold for passing in Miami-Dade, though.) That ballot item was the work of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, an every-20-years commission whose existence is up for a statewide vote this November with Constitutional Amendment No. 2.

In 2019, as the MDX fight dragged on, commissioners became even more alarmed, warning that there was talk in the Legislature of trying to take over MIA and PortMiami. The situation was so worrisome that then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez allotted $2.4 million for “voter education campaigns” in his 2020 budget proposal, saying the campaigns would make residents aware of “any potential threats to the governance and provision of services in our community.”

Then-Commission Chairwoman Audrey Edmonson was more direct: “Some of the legislators up in Tallahassee plan to preempt or take away the port and airport from the county. We’ll have to wait and see.”

The county hasn’t yet had to directly fend off attacks on the airport or port. But earlier this year, state Rep. Bryan Avila — a Republican from Miami Springs who also happened to be one of the chief architects of Florida’s plan to take over MDX — started raising money to run for Miami-Dade County Commission for Commissioner Rebeca Sosa’s District 6 seat.

He changed his plans, running instead for Senate District 39 when incumbent Sen. Manny Diaz was appointed as the state’s education commissioner. Avila won the Senate seat in the primary. But if he had been elected to the Miami-Dade commission, it seems likely he would have favored MDX-like state takeovers in the future.

The Miami-Dade Home Rule Charter was approved by Florida voters in 1956. It’s part of the state Constitution and yet state lawmakers are clearly looking for ways to circumvent it. But if the state takes over control of our key assets — a world-famous cruise ship terminal and an international airport that marks the gateway to Latin America — Miami-Dade residents will be the losers.

Yes, there is a continuing problem with airport vendors filling campaign coffers for county commissioners. But local problems should be solved locally. A state takeover by a so-called independent port or airport authority wouldn’t fix things. It would just change the names of the politicians benefiting.

County Amendment 2 is the result of threats to our local power. If Referendum 2 is approved on Nov. 8, it would help retain local control of some of the county’s key assets: the airport, the port and the expressway authority. That’s the right thing to do for the future of this county.

The Miami Herald Editorial Board recommends YES on Miami-Dade County Referendum 2.

This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 1:42 PM.