I submit that it is time we start taking major expenditures away from our elected officials. - Norman Braman
Rich guy, Norman Braman, wrote a letter that hit the bull's eye. He identified the problem in the quote above. However, the fix shouldn't be only about transit or repealing the sales tax. That is but a band-aid. Norman: Let's lance the boil and do a petition drive to take ALL major expenditures away from the County Commission. That is the petition that should be circulated (or an even broader one). We will help you with your petiton. Will you help fund it? Hit read more to see the entire text of his letter in the Miaimi Herald today:
Voters have power to end corruption
Posted on Sat, Jun. 14, 2008
Once again, another scandal of taxpayers being lied to. Government waste and corruption emanate from Miami-Dade County: This time it is the transit tax.
In 1999 I fought a referendum against then Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas' proposed 1-cent tax, which voters rejected in a special election by a 2-to-1 margin. That did not stop Penelas from coming back in 2002 with a half-cent tax referendum, promising ``new money for new projects.''
Thanks to Larry Lebowitz's Miami Herald articles, taxpayers discovered that we were lied to, that pertinent information was withheld and that we were led to the taxing authority's slaughter house.
Strange, isn't it, that no one seems to want to take the blame for the disinformation foisted upon voters and taxpayers? Not Penelas or former Transit Director Danny Alvarez or County Manager George Burgess or his predecessor, Steve Shiver. Not political consultant Rick Katz or former Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley or County Commissioner Katy Sorenson or County Mayor Carlos Alvarez. No one.
And they are right. For it is the voters who are responsible for all of the abhorrent graft, corruption, lies, theft, gross mismanagement, cost overruns and utter waste of our taxes. Why? Because we put up with it and allow it to happen, again and again. We keep electing and reelecting these same people regardless of how badly they act.
If you believe that every one of the politicians who voted for the resolution creating the 2002 half-cent tax and the Citizens ''Independent'' Transportation Trust did not know about the huge annual transportation deficits, the failure to perform required past and current maintenance on Metrorail cars (which now has caused the county to buy new cars for $345 million) and that the CITT would not have the power to oversee the use of the half-penny surtax, then I have a port tunnel, trolley, two museums and a Marlins baseball stadium for you.
If we are sick of this, someone should do something about it. I submit that it is time we start taking major expenditures away from our elected officials.
We should immediately initiate a petition to repeal the half-cent sales tax ($800 million for nothing) and demand a countywide and truly politically independent transportation authority to provide us with a modern public-transportation system and the proper methods to pay for it.
Our current county mayor, manager and all of his assistants, and even some commissioners, appear not to be up to this task.
NORMAN BRAMAN, Indian Creek Village
Call him: Tell him you will help 305 576-1889
26 comments:
Braman and some other rich people who are not afraid of the County Commission should help us help ourselves. District voting has been our doom, countwide petition drives is our only relief.
The problem is that we can't trust Braman any more than the Commission.
It's not surprising to find the owner of a large chain of automobile dealerships fighting any expansion of mass transit. It's actually to Braman's benefit to have a corrupt commission in place; let them screw up the transit initiatives that voters pass, and he then can kill or maim new initiatives that might hurt his business, using the Commission's incompetence as supporting evidence. It's brilliant, really.
No, you can't trust Braman when it comes to transit. And he's shortsighted when it comes to other major projects.
The death of the Orange Bowl is directly attributable to Braman; when the county tried to raise funds for a major renovation 20 odd years ago, Braman is the one who killed it. Did he press to get rid of the Bowl? No. He just stopped any effort to make it desirable. It remained, largely unusable, draining taxpayer dollars until finally its last occupant left for a facility that met their needs.
That pile of rubble on NW 7th Street? That's Braman's legacy for Miami.
No, Braman is no solution, he's just a different obstruction.
Yep...Braman is no solution. One wonders what he has in his closet?
Why do I see a little bit of envy in the past comments. The fact that Braman is rich doesn't preclude him from expressing his opinion, nor to participate in public discourse. It's worse when the "poor" exchange their vote for "pastelitos and Cuban coffee" to continue to reelect the same incompetent commissioners to the Board of County Commissioners. Are you all liberal-socialists who believe in the "redistribution of wealth"?
Come on, do you really believe that the Rolls-Royce and BMW crowd that Braman caters to worries about having to utilize mass transit?
If you can get money from a rich guy, I don't give a shit about his motives, to do good:
Take it!
I can understand those who are in the pocket of the present bunch of crooked politicians trying to put down Norman. If he will help the honest people get rid of the criminals in Govt. I am all for him. I certainly will do all I can to help. It is my belief after many years of being in politics that Norman is honest and is trying to do the right thing.
An e-mail message I received this morning reads....
"We are all aware that this August 26, the leadership of District 11 needs to change. We need a new commissioner who will rise to address the many challenges that our community faces, many of which stem from the current leadership. I have said that I am running for commissioner not to be someone, but to do something - to do what is difficult, but necessary, to address our community’s concerns. I have listened to the residents and I have taken up their causes. I have been defiant to the builders and developers that our incumbent’s so gladly serve. I have been forthright and public about my position."
Anyone interested in receiving the entire message should contact the Whilly Bermudez Campaign at
www.Whilly5@aol.com
Braman needs to work his majic 1 commissioner (or candidate) at a time.
If you're accusing me of being "in the pocket" of any politicians, it's pretty good evidence that you're not in MENSA.
With few exceptions, 0ur local goverment is utterly corrupt, and where they aren't corrupt, they're stupid except for those who transcend stupidity to achieve incompetence.
Norman Braman isn't interested in "fighting corruption." If he was, he wouldn't wait until the commission was working on projects that would get people away from their cars, he'd be actively involved all the time.
He's correct that we've elected idiots who lack any sense of fiscal responsibility; but the source of the problem is us. WE elected them. WE fail to make them listen.
The real solution is to elect better people. Instead, too much of the commission was elected based on how they feel about Castro.
c.l.j. we have district voting...we need at large commissioners.
c.i.j. What I have read about Mr. Braman is that he has always been fighting against the corrupt county government. Why instead of whinning so much, you try to do your part by contacting him to offer your help. It's easy to critizice but no one offers better ideas or solutions.
"Norman Braman isn't interested in "fighting corruption." If he was, he wouldn't wait until the commission was working on projects that would get people away from their cars, he'd be actively involved all the time."
That's it? Braman isn't interested in fighting corruption because he's afraid someone will opt out of an X4 for a ride on a Metrobus? LOL! What is it you said about MENSA?
BTW, exactly how much of your fortune have you given to fighting the insanity they call Miami-Dade government?
Braman doesn't just sell luxury cars, he makes the lion's share of his sales in Hondas which would see sales plummet with real mass transit expansion. And by the way, take a walk through one of the Dadeland metrorail garage's and you'll see BMW after BMW of a metrorial rider. I agree Braman doesn't fear busses but he's terrified of real rail expansion.
I really don't like the idea of removing from our elected officials the basic decisions of government. Basically what we are saying is that we can't trust the people we elect to properly govern. The old saying goes, in a democracy, people get the leaders they deserve (what does our inept commission say about us?).
Is says district voting. A majority of about 1,000 people are electing our commissioners whom govern 2,402,208 of us. That is the problem. If all of us voted, it would even out the idiots.
I hate the term "YOU PEOPLE" so i won't say it. But YP don't have too many rich people up your sleeve and you can't do anything in Miami Dade without money. When you can get a rich guy or gal to fork over funds, no matter what their motive is, that might contribute to something we believe in, don't get all huffy and self righteous. Hold out your hand silently and then try to make a difference for the good of us all. Braman has been contributing to his faith in mega amounts. If he is willing to support something else that might help...good lord, who cares why. I don't care if it will help his Honda sales.
The more I read the blog the more I get the picture of the other readers who also read and post. I was hoping that this blog would help unite people who want to improve local government. I may be wrong but my take on posters is that they are anti-big business, anti-rich people, anti-republican mostly on the left of center when it comes to political views. I don’t see this blog uniting people although I wish it would. I still hope that some where in south Florida there will be a place where those who want to rally the troops to do as the authors of this blog say; “Dedicated to ethical government, saving tax dollars and a healthy environment. We aim to break the chokehold of Miami's developers and lobbyists on local government and the public commons. We offer our forum to that end.”
Unfortunately from what I read in the comments I don’t see this happening here.
If Mr Braman wants to chime in on what we all know to be a failed government, great. Whatever, if any, his ulterior motives may be, maybe we'll find out, maybe we won't. The fact remains county government has failed all residents when it comes to mass transit and we are in dire need of a solution or at least the beginning of a solution. Why won't a private firm step up and offer to manage mass transit, much the way they're clamoring to manage the roads ( Lexus lanes, Alligator Alley )?
No private firms step up to manage mass transit because its not a profitable enterprise. Not even New Yorks heavily used subway system can break even. Then again, you wouldn't expect the road in front of your house to pay for itself either would you? Thats pretty much what a government is for, to run things that are necessary but that generally can't turn profit (such as police, education, or infrastructure). My main beef with Braman is that he simply criticizes and offers no solutions. And no repealing the 1/2 penny tax is not a solution. That would be like saying that our schools are financially mismanaged so we are going to remove their funding. Who loses when you do that? Certainly not the people who mismanaged the funding. The ones who lose are your kids. Same thing with repealing the transit tax. The commissioners wouldn't be bothered in the slightest but Miami-Dade's citizens would lose big time.
For those of you who recommend privatizing the transit system, it was private until 1962. As a kid I remember the neighbor was a bus driver for Miami Transit Company. Miami Beach had its own private company and Coral Gables had their own. (Anyone remember the Coral Gables bus terminal?) Did not work well then and would not work well now.
An added note for you FPL bashers out there, the Miami street car system was owned by no other than Florida Power & Light in the 1930’s.
dave -
"My main beef with Braman is that he simply criticizes and offers no solutions."
And how does that differ from you?
dave-
"his sales in Hondas which would see sales plummet with real mass transit expansion"
Any historical evidence to back up that claim or do you just make this stuff up as you go along?
Why are readers snippy to Dave? He is expressing his view. We can learn from each other. And, I don't mind that we have opposing views. I think that works towards a solution, so I don't agree with one of the anonymous's above who complains about the quality of our readers. I like our readers, except for one or two of them. We have all kinds in Miami and we should listen but I hate the snippy comments when we are trying to get serious. We have plenty of posts where you can be annoying.
G.O.D. so what can we change? We can’t vote them out. The strong mayor isn’t strong enough. The commission will not allow the recommended changes to the charter. Rich business men can’t help because they have their own interests ahead of the real problems and cannot be trusted. Other than read this blog and take snipes at each other what can we do?
I wonder if it can be addressed at the state level with changes to the constitution to override parts of the home rule charter.
I guess reader "Off with their Heads" has a point. I think we have to look at the charter with some experts and do a petition that will be meaningful, a broad petition that will bring about strong action. It might have to be a two part petition. But I think petition is our only avenue. They took away the charter task force as an option.
The Commission has gone beyond absurd when they propose another 1/2 penny sales tax after they completely wasted the first 1/2 penny.
EYE ON MIAMI: THIS IS HOW YOU GET THESE INCUMBENTS OUT OF OFFICE THIS AUG 26 . . .
YOU WRITE A BLOG OR ARTICLE CALLING FOR ALL THE NEW CANDIDATES TO HOLD A MEETING IN PERSON. AT THIS MEETING THEY CAN ALL HELP EACHOTHER WITH EACHOTHERS RESOURCES. THEY EACH CAN OFFER MUCH MORE THAN JUST SUPPORT TO THE NEXT CANDIDATE.
A COALITION WILL BE FORMED AND THEN THE MIAMI HERALD WILL FOLLOW.
THIS "TEAM" WILL BE MUCH MORE SUCCESFUL AS A TEAM THAN A SINGLE NEW CANDIDATE.
DO THIS AND INCUMBENTS WILL FALL.
FIND OUT WHICH OF THE CANDIDATES ARE WILLING...
JUSTICE
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