Community takers

When it comes to Miami-Dade County and its relationship with sports teams our future is starting to look like our recent past.

Last week I wrote a piece on my blog titled Pigggies stating my reasons for opposing the proposed financing deal for improvements to the football stadium where the Miami Dolphins play. I reminded my readers of the not too distant past and the tax dollar give-away orchestrated by the Miami Marlins baseball team and ratified by many of the same politicians and community leaders now blabbering in favor of the Miami Dolphins.

I mentioned that the Dolphins’ owner, Stephen Ross, and a host of ‘community leaders’ whom I’d rather call community takers, seem to favor finding public financing (yes! tax dollars) for a new partial roof atop a football stadium while often forgetting that Miami has other priorities – at least I consider them more important. Then again, who am it to opine. I’m not a member of that prestigious group of community takers; I mean leaders.

More important matters, for example, like the case reported by John Dorschner of The Miami Herald who informs us that “an analysis by the Florida Hospital Association shows that Miami-Dade hospitals stand to lose $1.9 billion in federal funding over the next decade to treat Medicare patients.”

Yet, a $400 million roof atop Dolphins stadium trumps the healthcare of the elderly. Or am I wrong? Because I have yet to see a group of community takers get together and ask to raise tourist taxes (that’s how they mask the tax dollars that will be given the Dolphins) in order to satisfy our urgent need for better health care, or improved education, or even opening public libraries on Sunday.

Then yesterday (Wednesday, Jan. 23) the circus came back to town. Not Ringling Brothers, but the Miami-Dade County Commission, who stepped all over each other’s tongues to assure anyone listening to them that this was nothing like the Marlins deal (favored my many of them last time around) and to remind us that this vote they were taking was nonbinding. So, in fact, it was simply a message to the Florida legislature that the county (that would be us and nobody asked my opinion…) backs the Dolphins’ plan.

By the way it’s true. The vote was nonbinding. But it did set the wheels in motion.

Gosh! It’s déjà vu.

Get ready. We’re being taken to the cleaners. Again!

Alvaro F. Fernandez