Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Yipee! Budget Time! By Geniusofdespair

The proposed Miami Dade County budget for 2009-2010 should be posted later today. Yippee! It is budget time which means County Commission meetings will stretch to the wee hours of the morning as Commissioners fight for their pet projects. It was at such a meeting when Vile Natacha Seijas, fighting for Senior lunches (a vote-getter), threatened then Commission Chair Gwen Margolis. Gwen is curiously running for the State Senate seat of Dan Gelber. How old is she anyway? She has been in and out of office since 1975.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

They should only dump county employees almost qualifying for pensions. Pensions are killing all of us!

youbetcha' said...

The cover looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie. The smoke and mirrors within are just as tricky as the ones that old Harry uses too. By the way, don't you think that our county manager looks like an older Harry Potter?

I suspect that dumping almost pensioners would cost more in Federal lawsuits than the county share to the state pension fund. If we lose those type of lawsuits, it doesn't exactly protect our county piggy bank.

Cato said...

Mr. Gelber IS NOT term limited he just got elected to that senate seat which Gwen had stepped down from to run (unsuccesfully) for property appraiser. The music has begun to play again so Dan has left his chair (not even warm yet) headed for the FL State Attorney Generals Chair.
I don't know about you all but I'm getting sick and tired of our parasitic, ants in the pants political class (or lack there of).

Anonymous said...

Dear County Employees:



Preparing a proposed budget for the upcoming year has been an arduous, painstaking process. In 33 years of public service, I have never faced a more difficult task. We are facing more than a $400 million budget shortfall, and no matter how you look at it, there is no simple way to fill the gap.



In the budget development process, every hard choice was considered, including service reductions, position eliminations, departmental consolidations and revenue increases. If the budget is adopted as proposed there will be significant impacts to all departments.



The elimination of over 1,700 positions will result in layoffs. Nothing has troubled me more than considering what this will mean for so many of our families. An across-the-board pay cut of 5%, no cost of living increases, a freeze in merit pay and longevity bonuses have also been recommended. As difficult as this may be, without those measures, we would be facing the elimination of an additional 2,000 positions.



Nobody wants to see people lose their jobs. Nobody wants to see service reductions. At the same time, the outcry to keep taxes low and not increase millage rates has been intense. We have to be prepared to live with the funding our citizens are willing to support.



Despite what you may hear, our budget gap would be the same with or without a baseball stadium, new airport terminals, or the host of other long-term construction projects on the drawing board. The dollars that fund these projects come from non-operating portions of the budget, and their uses are restricted. These projects -- and others -- represent thousands of jobs for our residents, at a time when jobs are desperately needed. That is why layoffs of any kind trouble me so much.



As the process moves forward, I will work hard to communicate with all of you and make sure everyone is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.



Sincerely,







Carlos Alvarez

Mayor

Anonymous said...

Despite what you may hear, our budget gap would be the same with or without a baseball stadium, new airport terminals, or the host of other long-term construction projects on the drawing board.

How many of those projects are full of funding issues that are NOT spoken about by staff for fear of reprisal (ie: being moved up on the Mayors cut list)?

What about the project cost overages that that the wonderful bonds and tourist taxes can't cover? The costs that the mayor and friends know will be paid for by general fund dollars. It has become the era of bait and switch in the county. The truth these days is whatever the person with you needs to hear.

As we can imagine, this is a great opportunity to purge the county of politically incorrect employees. Everyone is sitting around wondering who they pissed off last.

Why did the county keep on hiring non-essential employees when the writing was on the wall eons ago...way before last year's budget?

I think this stinks.

Anonymous said...

Gwen Margolis can't stay away from politics: but what has she really done, ever, in her long career other than punch the public official clock? It's all about dancing through the motions and not stopping until the music stops. Does Gwen believe in ANYTHING? Tell us, Gwen.

Geniusofdespair said...

I once saw her recuse herself, her Godson Michael Bauman if I recall, which is a lot more than I can say for the others.

Mensa said...

Gwen is 74 or 75. We have known her since she was a child. Considering the rest of the politicians she at least has some honesty.

Anonymous said...

She didn't age too well.

Anonymous said...

One thing she has done is be the first Female to become Senate President, which is second only to the Governor in terms of powerful positions in this state. Regardless of anything else, in the cut throat, good ol' boys network of Tallahassee politics, a Jewish Female from Miami-Dade County rising to that level is quite an accomplishment, whether or not you like her, or understand politics.

m

Anonymous said...

No one every talks about the looks of male politicians -- only women. Sexism never dies.

Geniusofdespair said...

Hey that ain't true. Eye on Miami has held three beauty contest and the winner of all three have been men...

Late comers to our blog, must do their research. This is a very fair blog...and our readers are pretty fair. To see Gwen in person -- it would be hard not to comment on her age....

http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/search?q=best+looking

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha.

Someone just said the mayor looked like a conehead. That is a male directed comment.

Wasn't there male look based comments on that pretty boy that just had the coral gables meeting?

Actually, why would women voters want their male politicians to look like their Dad? They don't need that and so what if we guys like legs on the gals?

.not either m.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree that the new stadium will not bring in profits as the city commissioner think... no one has money to spend on 10 dollar beers and 4 dollar hotdogs.. everyone is hurting for money and fighting to keep there jobs... and yes we as tax payers will have to open our pockets to fund something that as a whole nobody wants.. leave it up to the city and county commissioners to make this decision for us and see how it will put dade county in the biggest financial burden of its time... money spent on funding the stadium should be spent on essential services Fire, Police, funding as crime and call volume has gone up do to layoffs. people are getting very desperate and will do what ever it takes to feed there families... cutting to these services will only increase response times when peolple get robbed, stabbed, shot,,, when houses are burning and people are trapped in burning houses and when seconds count to act, its delayed because theres not enough units fire and police to respond.. in all money is being spent not on critical infrastructure but on things that will not help stabalize our community... but hey at the end we'll have a nice stadium with empty seats because our money as taxpayers is being spent on bulls***. !!!!! ... MORE >