Apparently the dates and amounts differ by Commission District. Rebeca Sosa gives $1,000 to $3,000 and the dates are Feb. 18 to March 10th. Bell gives up to $2,000 for home based businesses and up to $4,000 for commercial based businesses. Bell accepts the applications from Feb. 18 to Feb. 21. Sally Heyman stopped accepting grant applications Feb. 7th and hers were for up to $3,000. Souto gives up to $5,000 and you have until Feb. 21. I would apply for one except you have to attend a mandatory workshop. Between filling out the paper work and attending a workshop, it is hardly worth even $1,000. Here is a sample form. You still have time in most commission districts.
To me it is a waste of our tax dollars. Read my July 1, 2013 post about them. In some districts nearly 1/2 were out of business a few years later. The ones still in business were mostly professionals, like accountants, who really don't need our grants to begin with.
I think this is a good way to fund libraries, stop these stupid grants.
8 comments:
District 8 doesn't have the form online. I keep bouncing back to her home page on miamidade.gov. I guess it's another way for her to keep track of residents within the District for her re election campaign and micro manage mailings to them in the future.
Did anyone ever get the mailing list she sent those stupid magnets to? If not, how do I get it?
She sent the magnets to Seniors (senior exemption),Homestead Exemption
and UMSA. Yes I have the list.
It's more about getting votes (or funding friends and family) than helping businesses. Has anyone ever seen a county audit of these "grants".
I think they've posted a bunch of the grant recipients here on this blog. Some were no longer in business or out of the county/district. It's a ridiculous waste of our tax dollars.
What's the full total of all of the grants being given?
As a comparison, an adult hardback book averages at $27.00 and children's hardback books average at $17.00. The cost of providing online databases for all library card holders is $450,000 (auto repair guides, blank contract templates, video newscasts, WSJ, Valueline, Morningstar, Mango Languages with 65+ interactive language courses, Learning Express with career and college tests - including Photoshop, real estate tests, citizenship test, fire, police, exams, the Miami Herald back to 1982, and so much more.) Downloadables such as 225 magazine titles, children's books, audiobooks are also resources that are available to ALL miami-dade residents.
That is useful to many instead of narrowly helping a chosen few,
I applied for a grant in Bruno's district. Everyone that showed up got a 1000.00. You were supposed to speak to a committee to prove why needed the money. The process was a joke!! They didn't care what you said. But you did have to go to a meeting that showed you fill out a simple form. They didn't care about your business needs! I didn't collect my 1000.
As a small business owner, even $1000 can be a huge help. And the fact the company went out of business doesn't mean it wasn't worth it. The failure rate on new businesses is huge. And simply because someone is a professional, like an accountant, doesn't meant they can't use the help if the money is used in the right way. Typically this money will also be spent locally, whether at printer for marketing materials or to hire someone local or to make repairs, which should in theory, help the district.
Having said that, there is a huge potential for abuse and the program needs to be better structured to avoid that.
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