Every year the county sends a top 10 list of things they want from Tallahassee. These are the things our EXPENSIVE lobbyists are to fight for. Education? Mass Transit? Hospital Funding? Flooding Costs? Job Training? Well, you would be wrong. According to Michael Lewis:
County officials complain we send far more money to the state than we get back to serve our residents. They also lament that Tallahassee doesn’t listen to what we need in Miami-Dade. Other counties, they moan, are far better at getting what they want from the state.and...
All of that is true, and there’s a reason: despite having five former state legislators on our 13-member county commission, we stumble all over ourselves when we ask the state for what we think we need. We have met the enemy, and he is us.
Not to deride the aims, but with all this county’s critical needs in higher education, transportation, schools, hospitals, economic development and job growth, social services, infrastructure and far more, the 23 items to choose among included – and I’m not making this up, I assure you:The people we elected are mostly morons. Souto, get off the Commission. We don't need your damn cattle show crap.
State funding for a horse and cattle show
Rest stops for cattle coming to the show (that’s a second item)
Identity theft protection for minors
Regulation of liquid nitrogen
Dual naming part of Curtiss Parkway as Doral Boulevard
Banning the sale of ivory in Florida
Requiring sexual predators to wear electronic monitors.
Those are almost a third of the choices for what is most important to Miami-Dade County.
Lewis said: "It’s no wonder we get so little from Tallahassee. We don’t know how to ask for it."
Everyone who cares, make up your own list and put it here.
15 comments:
Reading Eye on Miami has led me to the conclusion I must move out of Miami.
This is the most pathetic list of funding that does nothing to address the real needs of Miami Dade County.
Term Limits! I want Term Limits now. Recently Audrey Edmonson voted to pave more of the waterfront site zoned park and recreation known as Parcel B then is already paved. She also voted to kill existing trees on the site. Really Audrey? You voted to pave Parcel B? And kill trees?
We already have Term Limits for County Commissioners.
Pay Attention.
There are newbies to county politics I want to educate. Thank you for informing this new reader.
Are there any trees on Parcel B. Maybe a few small palms put in for the MTV awards. They use it as a parking lot.
EOM readers should check out the list of departmental lobbying requests that were approved the same day as the commissioners little asks. There's more meat on those bones. When they were being heard at BCC for approval, Sally Heyman rightfully pointed out that her colleagues' priorities were screwed up. You should watch the tape!
Parcel B is not just an average parking lot. Parcel B is a parking lot for limousines.
Based on this article that has been removed from the MIami Herald:
"The Miami Heat and the arena are using the space almost for free, as a parking lot, for $500 a day during basketball season or concerts,” Commissioner Juan Zapata said. “The Heat should have developed the space from the start. Later the rights were passed on to the county, which is renting it annually for $40,000 or $50,000. But the maintenance of the property has already cost $6.5 million."
If I were a commissioner and needed to take an easy way out, which based on this pathetic thrown together list, they have chosen to do...I'd just stick to bridges. Our bridges are in disrepair. That's a no-brainer perfect for a no-brainer.
Have to agree with Anonymous #1. Reading EOM is so terribly depressing.
Our commissioners are an embarrassing joke.
Is it possible to become a 4th world city?
They should be asking Tallahassee to regulate carbon to help save the county from climate change and sea level rise. Why can't they at least do that?
Parcel B had lots of grass and dozens of trees, at least until Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and a majority of the dumb as rocks commissioners voted to kill a bunch of the remaining trees and add concrete to the existing asphalt.
Here is my list:
Medicaid Expansion
Job training and placement
Affordable housing
Blight Removal
Transportation improvements
Transit Expansion
ACA Exchange Support
Water and Sewer support
Climate Change Planning
Adult Education
You're all probably laughing at the liquid nitrogen issue but the stuff is dangerous and it's the latest craze in ice cream shops (Chilln, Subzero).
If it's not handled properly it can cause real safety issues.
I say we get rid of tuition at all state supported colleges and universities. Today Germany announced it is offering FREE tuition to all American and international students. There is going to be a rush of young people trying to get to Germany and trying to learn the language. Everyone is working on their 100-year plan except us. We are day-to-day people.
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