MIAMI — After a marathon commission meeting stretching from Thursday night into Friday morning, Miami-Dade County approved its $12.9 billion budget for the next fiscal year.
The county won’t be raising transit fares or property taxes.
But water rates will increase by 3.5% and suburban trash fees will go up by about $5.
Thursday’s commission meeting, described by Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez as “spicy,” got heated at times.
The night was marked by a tense back-and-forth between Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and District 11 Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez.
“I do not need to have to explain why I am asking for anything,” Gonzalez said at one point.
“You do need to show me respect,” the mayor responded.
Gonzalez accused the administration of an “utter lack of transparency” and criticized $1.005 million allocated for animal services marketing while shelter conditions remain poor.
Levine Cava fired back at Gonzalez, accusing him of hypocrisy.
“You said this afternoon that you are enthusiastic about marketing during your podcast and I think to prove it, you spent a lot of money on T-shirts and bags so you could get your message across,” Levine Cava said as she stood up and displayed a shirt saying “Roberto J. Gonzalez + Commissioner District 11″ on the front.
Marketing, she said, “plays an important part in communicating to the pubic about things like how to get your dog adopted, or how to get trash picked up, or where to find the bus to get you where you need to go.”
“These are all critical components of marketing, sir,” Levine Cava said, noting that the county was consolidating its marketing efforts.
On taxes, Gonzalez pressed the mayor on lowering rates. Levine Cava responded: “I have not proposed a tax increase, not here, not since I have been mayor, and there is no tax increase in this budget.”
In a statement to Local 10 News on Friday, a spokesperson for Gonzalez’s office said they decided not to meet with Levine Cava again because they were “unsatisfied with how the budget was explained.”
They instead used “public meetings to ask questions, many of which were not fully answered.”
Local 10 News asked Gonzalez’s office if he plans to cut his district’s marketing budget for personal name promotion, given his proposal to cut the county’s public information-related budget used for marketing public services.
“The commission office has a balanced budget for its operations. Commissioner Gonzalez asked about marketing to determine whether overlapping functions exist and whether efficiencies can be achieved,” the spokesperson said.
Miami-Dade sheriff gets billion-dollar budget
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office was afforded a $1.1 billion budget after public campaigning by Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz.
“I am pleased to share that the budget for the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office has been approved,” Cordero-Stutz said in a statement to Local 10 News. “This ensures we can continue delivering excellent service, put new academy classes through, strengthen our workforce, and provide the tools and training needed to protect our community with integrity and professionalism.”
Levine Cava said, “Certainly, we ran the (former Miami-Dade Police) Department for much less; (Cordero-Stutz) is now a constitutional officer and while she doesn’t own property, it is owned by the county.”
“She wanted to be assured that she has enough room in her budget to continually recruit and train, which we understand,” the mayor added.
Restoring nonprofits, cutting DERM
Levine Cava said the county closed its $400 million budget gap without raising taxes, merging departments, freezing hiring and reallocating $70 million in unused funds from independent constitutional offices.
Those moves allowed the restoration of funding for nonprofits, arts, and cultural groups.
“Restoring funding to our nonprofit and arts communities, which unfortunately we don’t know how we will be able to do that in the future, so we did restore for now, but we know we will need to continue to work all year long to prepare for less revenue,” Levine Cava said.
But environmental groups left feeling deflated after commissioners voted around 3 a.m. to strip the Division of Environmental Resources Management of its permitting authority, transferring that responsibility to the building department.
“We think this is going to have long-term repercussions for the environment and we are going to be unable to meet our environmental goals,” Rachel Silverstein, from the group Miami Waterkeeper, said. “There is going to be implications for resilience, for sustainability and this is just not how a healthy environmental regulatory agency operates.”
Silverstein warned that the move could shift decision-making from environmental specialists to building staff focused solely on code compliance.
The mayor insisted environmental reviews will still be performed by the same staff, just within a restructured system, adding: “This was designed to streamline the process but also elevate the status of DERM.”
Looking ahead
As state lawmakers explore proposals to reduce or even eliminate property taxes, a concept championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the mayor cautioned that cuts could jeopardize essential county services.
“If there are property tax reductions that will really hit us in the gut because the core of our budget is public safety, the sheriff, fire, parks, road maintenance — those are all general funds,” Levine Cava said. “A portion of our cultural and arts grants are general funds.”
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