(I made up that 1.49 Million, but it feels right.) Some of you actually voted for the 1/2 percent sales tax for transit (not me, I knew better). Well, now you can see what happened to the money, it is detailed in Part 1 of a 3 Part investigative report: Taken for a Ride: Promise of transit tax derailed. Larry Lebowitz reports: County leaders promised 17 million miles of new bus service. They never got close.
Promising "New Money for New Projects,'' the 2002 campaign, led by former county Mayor Alex Penelas, vowed to bring Miami-Dade Transit into the 21st century if voters approved a long-sought sales tax.
But five years and more than $800 million later, the county has spent more than half the new money on routine Transit operations and maintenance while adding 1,000 jobs to the payroll.
I did not vote for it when I found out that all the cities were getting a cut. They were able to spend it on median beautification, etc. According to Lebowitz, this is how it ended up:
Transit can essentially bill 24 of every 100 paper clips, 24 of every 100 new polo shirts, even 24 of every 100 cockroaches exterminated, to the sales-tax fund.
Miami Herald: Boffo job on Part 1!
5 comments:
The Herald did an oustanding job on this....I always suspected we were being ripped off.
I didn't vote for it either. In fact, I never vote in favor of new taxes in Miami-Dade until we have better elected officials in charge of the pot. I'm looking forward to the second part of The Herald's report tomorrow Monday.
Like all those rich communities needed the money....
I recently confronted Transit employees about how the tax was wasted. They got all huffy and swore no money was spent for projects not in the PIP. But I, like many others, watched the misuse. Sadly transit knew it, commissioners knew it, Burgess knew it and no one stopped it. The only hero in this mess is Bonacotti who kept it in the spotlight even though his committee had no power. Wish he would run for commissioner!
Wait, maybe I am missing something here but these people are paying that half cent tax, therefore, isn't it reasonable for them to get a slice of the pie? Also, that 20% only goes on for a finite amount of years, right? Just because two thirds of the taxes I pay in my (donor) comminity aren't spent here, it doesn't make it right. Larry went for the cheap thrill, but what is he saying here?
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