Miami-Dade cuts back on necessities; spends on the luxuries; will raise our taxes

Al’s Loupe

Miami-Dade cuts back on necessities; spends on the luxuries; will raise our taxes

By Alvaro F. Fernandez

alfernandez@the-beach.net

My mother recently landed at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. It’s not easy being 88-years-old. My sister, Irene, flew down to help attend to her. She’d take a bus to the hospital every morning. That first Friday, Irene stepped out of the apartment and took the R bus, which dropped her off in front of Mt. Sinai. The following day she attempted to do the same. Except, after waiting for more than an hour, she called me: could I pick her up?

It turns out that the R bus is no longer running on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s part of Miami-Dade’s cost-cutting plan.

Few Miami-Dade residents have bothered to complain. Maybe they don’t care. They seem to have forgotten that in 2002 we voted to tax ourselves (one-half cent on every dollar spent) in order to improve public transportation. The plan was to extend the rapid transit rail lines, buy new buses and add buses to regular routes so that they might work more efficiently. Seven years later, the opposite is true. Rapid transit is up in the air — nothing’s happened. New buses have been bought — but old ones discarded (meaning fewer buses on the road). As for working more efficiently… what used to take half an hour between buses became 45 to 50 minutes — on good days! And, like the case of the R bus, many routes and the hours and days of operation have been curtailed.

But we’re still being taxed the half cent. They’re spending it illegally — to cover department deficits. It’s not what we voted for; and it’s not what they promised. When facing Miami residents, though, most of the politicians who allow this situation to continue shrug their shoulders and say little.

The system is rigged in their favor, so why rock the boat — that’s my interpretation of that shrug.

In a recent Miami Herald editorial, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said that in his “decades of government service he has never had to make the tough budget choices he has faced this year.” Alvarez recently presented a county budget to county commissioners with a $427 million hole in it. His solution: more than 1,700 county workers will lose their jobs; salary cuts in all departments; and a hike on property taxes.

For starters, I agree that a 5 percent across the board cut on (all) county employees is fair. (Although, I would make it even higher for those making over a certain amount… maybe $100,000.) Why not? It’s not like they are different from the rest of us. I know that both police and fire unions will fight this. In the past, they‘ve been known to act as if they’re (more) special than the rest of us. You’ll soon start hearing that they put their lives on the line and other such nonsense. Yes they put their lives on the line. Then again I didn’t put a gun to their heads and forced them to become cops or firefighters. But anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them fight the cut, and probably win… They scare the hell out of the politicians. They are well organized and have the ability to raise money and votes during election time.

Also, as I recently commented on my blog (This Ain’t Disneyland), the 1,700 county workers losing jobs, over time, should become more than 3,000. I am sure we can do without some of these jobs. But Alvarez’ reasoning is much more than getting rid of the fat. What hurts most, though, are the social services, park hours, library hours, and a host of other services many of us use, often need and other times enjoy on a regular basis (for example, buses) that will also be cut to a minimum.

As crazy as it may sound, I believe it is all part of the mayor’s plan, so he can raise property taxes. It’s not a good idea; also not a very popular one. We’re traversing a bad recession. But the mayor is used to getting his way. And although a cop at heart (Alvarez was chief of police before running for mayor), this guy’s smart. (For the cops I’ve just insulted, sorry about that… I grew up in the decade of the 60s. I am still not very comfortable around police.)

The Alvarez plan

Here’s how I see it playing out. First, the mayor is up to his neck with a new baseball stadium he led the cheerleading for. The county just issued more than 400 million dollars in bonds that must be paid back over 40 years. (We recently found out that after interest is taken into account, the $400 million should turn into about $2.5 billion.) Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I also found the county’s 400 million-plus deficit interesting — did you notice it’s about the same amount as the bonds issued…

I keep asking myself: where are our priorities? We’re cutting back on everything including park programs for our kids, medicine for our elderly and bus rides for those without cars, but hell there’s a few billion for a baseball stadium most of us will never set foot in. And although we won’t be able to afford it — we’re paying for it.

By raising property taxes, Mayor Alvarez will produce the monies in tax revenues the county has lost because of the devaluation of real estate properties — which is occurring everywhere. By laying off employees and cutting county programs and services, there should be enough monies to pay debt on the stadium. And wait till we get to the planned downtown Miami tunnel to nowhere at the tune of several billion dollars more…

But Alvarez has met resistance, from commissioners and county residents. He’s got a plan to counter that. On the commission side, each commissioner receives about a million dollars a year to do with as he or she wishes. As they distribute this money, it helps guarantee them the political base to get reelected. Alvarez’ new budget pretends to cut the slush funds. I predict he’ll negotiate with them and promise to maintain part of that fund in exchange for their vote on higher property taxes.

Still, Alvarez must convince Miami-Dade residents that raising taxes is the right thing to do. I know that the mayor has met with key social service organizations and their leaders to give them the bad news on the budget. As of right now, most of these groups will receive no funding this year. Many will have to close down. So… don’t be surprised if these same organizations are who carry the message for the mayor. It’s already going on. Just yesterday I received an email from Miami’s Human Services Coalition calling on all of us to reach out to our commissioners to assure that they vote in favor of raising our taxes.

In the end, Miami will get a new stadium. We will soon be paying higher property taxes and arguing over a multi-billion dollar tunnel to nowhere. There still won’t be an R bus running on weekends. And in my case, I’ll still be asking: what’s in it for Mayor Alvarez?