Miami-Dade tax collector: Here’s the truth about my office’s budget | Opinion

I wish to clarify and elaborate on several points covered in the Miami Herald’s article on Feb. 27 regarding the Miami-Dade tax collector office’s budget.

The article’s headline, “DMV offices have long waits — and Miami-Dade taxpayers just got a $171 million bill for a fix,” is misleading and implies that the tax collector is imposing a $171 million additional burden on taxpayers.

This is simply not the case.

The tax collector’s office will fund its operations and the expanded services it is required to offer under state law, using a long-standing funding mechanism that is expressly authorized by statute.

The funding mechanism, known as a “commission” is applied to the entities (not individual property owners) who use the tax collector’s office services and nearly every tax collector in the state relies on commissions to fund their office.

Unlike other tax collectors, however, in Miami-Dade we must also fund the acquisition of nine driver’s license offices currently run by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.— the most of any county.

It’s important to note that transforming the nine state-run driver’s license to be Miami-Dade-run will have an initial cost of roughly $40 million.

These offices never received the necessary investment in staffing, technology or infrastructure to meet the needs of our growing population.

Now, it is our responsibility to fix what was ignored for decades, and we will not shy away from the task at hand.

The tax collector’s office anticipates distributing approximately 75% of any commissions retained back to local governments.

The $171 million is not a spending plan—it is the maximum amount the office can retain under state law, and in no way reflects our budget, which is subject to Florida’s Department of Revenue approval.

As a fee office, our priority is to use revenue generated from service fees first to cover costs. The retained commissions serve as a backup, ensuring we have adequate funding for a smooth transition and enhanced operations.

The “refund” of unused dollars is required by state law, in fact, Florida Tax Collectors must start their fiscal years at “zero.”

My commitment is that every cent retained will be used efficiently and with total transparency.

We are not here to spend for the sake of spending but to reduce bureaucracy, improve the citizen experience and ensure that no one has to camp out overnight to obtain a driver’s license.

This article ignores the real crisis—the state-run driver’s license offices have been abandoned and mismanaged for years, forcing residents to suffer through large crowds, endless lines, and a system that has failed them completely.

While the article’s headline may attract more readers, Miami-Dade residents are smart enough to understand all of the facts and the necessary context.

The fact is Miami-Dade inherited a failed system, and while other governments take years to implement solutions, we have delivered fixes and expanded services in just five weeks.

I am fully committed to transparency and to clear and honest communication about the challenges we face and the real solutions we are implementing, including how those solutions will be funded.

Dariel Fernandez is the Miami-Dade Tax Collector.