All those people begging for money yesterday are going to be disappointed. There will be no money for their charities or causes. Commissioners now must cut half billion dollars out of their $7.5 billion budget.
According to the Miami Herald:
Voting for the flat tax rate: Javier Souto, Joe Martinez, Rebeca Sosa, Carlos Gimenez, Bruno Barreiro, Natacha Seijas, Jose "Pepe" Diaz and Sally Heyman.
Voting against: Chairman Dennis Moss, Barbara Jordan, Audrey Edmonson, Dorrin Rolle and Katy Sorenson.
19 comments:
NUMBERS people NUMBers
1-1993 county budget 2.5 Billion
equivalent budget in 2009 adjusted for inflation and popultaion 5 Billion, Proposed Budget in 2009 7.8 Billion
2-In 1993 there where approximately 25 incorporated cities today there are 35 so county gov has less unincorporated areas yet has more employees and bigger budget. That means above figure of 5 Billion should be less.
3- At 7.8 Billion County government cost per resident is $2,900 ($11,600) for a family of
4-That doesn't include School Board or cities etc (if taken into consideration average family of 4 with a media income of 45K in Miami Dade has a tax burden (direct and indirect) of over 20K.
5-47%, percentage of City employees earning over 100K
6-1761 Number of county employees earning over 100K\
7-173K rahm emmanuels Salaery
8-206K Dennis morales's salary.
Mobody had mentioned what's going to happen when the hotel tax which keeps dropping, is not enough to cover the new stadium.
So both Rahm and Denis make more than Crist...Sure there are many others.
No question: it's a mean season. Does anyone think the electorate will hold accountable elected officials who created this mess? Natacha Seijas, #1?
Follow the money folks. No one said the commissioners were reducing their discretionary bucks. Assuming they will not reduce their dollars, this gives them MORE power because they now have what those service agencies want. They can deal for votes as they seem to be the only ones to have excess dollars. Tell us please if the commissioners reduced their perks, their office budgets, and their discretionary money.
More #s
-1 Million Office Budget for Each commish
-$727,000 "discretionary" dinero, aaka patronage available to each commissioner. mayor has a goodie bag of his own too.
-14% percentage of voter turnout in 08 county elections
-31,000 number of county employees.
-5% approximately percentage of county employee electoral clout add friends and familia and that # goes to 15% in an election with less than 20% turnout.......well you do the math.
When there isn't "more," why "read more?!?!?!"
Grrrr!
Thank you. I needed that.
.
Rick...I don't know how to get rid of it...however,
I always put in a colon if there is more or i say "press read more...."
I never write much.
The BCC needs to go on a spending diet. While many of the groups speaking represent good charity's, they begin at home within their communities, not funded by my property taxes.
As someone who runs a small charity, I've never thought to ask the County for funds, we ask private donors and function within what we receive in donations. We also apply for private grants, and there are plenty of foundations throughout all sectors if one were to spend a small amount of time searching for them.
I don't believe the County should be supplementing small businesses, that's what the SBA is for.
I don't believe we should be funding meals - there's a federal program for that which we already pay for.
There seems to be a lot of vote buying to me, and I could be far off base, but Thursday night was an eye opener as to what our property tax dollars should not be used for. And it's not that these groups are not worth while and serve a great community need, it's the faulty funding structure and their dependancy on the County which is flawed.
The County won't let areas incorporate, and now they cannot pay to service them with the hyper inflated budget? What's wrong with that picture?
If I had a go at the budget, which I have read, the cuts would be a lot deeper than what is proposed. However, that's just me and probably a hand full of other like minded property owners picking up the tab for waste and corruption from within County hall.
I'm charitable, but enough is enough.
The problem is county services are not there anymore for social services.
Over the years the county has dumped the provision of emergency services onto the community and non-profits. It was sort of a privatization of services which works as long as there is money to feed the hungry and house the poor. But, in an economy such as ours right now, the need for food, housing, mental health counseling, job placement services and other similar services has overwhelmed the non-profit sector. A non-profit can not possibly raise enough funds from a dinner or donations to provide services in the quantity the community is needing. You either fund raise or you case manage.
Arts organizations are swell, but it doesn't matter if you have performing arts centers if you don't have a job, food for your children and you are sleeping in a car. Everyday the homeless centers are overflowing. At 2:00, you can call the homeless hotline after the final empty bed count only to find out that your client and family will still be in the car another night. Unfortunately, the county does need to support social services, since they depend on others to do the job that they quit doing.
The biggest explosion even bigger than Hiroshima and Nagaski combined is the demographic or population explosion. Time to break out the Norplant. Remember the state is not supposed to be your mommy or your daddy and when it is history proves time and again that the results are HORIfFIC.
There are several executives at the White House who get paid the White House max salary of $172,000. These executives have multiple graduate degrees and massive experience in the private sector. Larry Summers was President of Harvard and he was a former Treasury Secretary. He makes $172,000. I bet there are 100 County Firemen who only have HS degees who make over $200,000 per year. Yet executives who run a country with 300 million residents are happy to work for $172,000 and almost no chance of getting vested. No wonder the County is facing ruin.
To the NUMBERS person.
There are actually more people living in UMSA now than ever before. Despite the incorporations that you mentioned. It's a fact.
When an area does incorporate, do you think that absolves the County from providing services there? The County still picks up the trash for most cities that have incorporated, provides police services for most of them, fire services to most of them, water and sewer services to all or them (except North Miami), and so on and so on. Miami-Dade County, as a whole, has increased in population by about 140,000 since 2000. Despite the statewide trend of losing population.
The only thing that happens when an area incorporates is that another layer of code enforcement and bureaucracy is added. It doesn't mean you don't rely on the County every time you turn your faucet, flush your toilet, stop at a red light, drive on a road, etc...
And why are incorporated areas still using county services? Because the county mandated they had to use the county police, fire, waste pick-up etc. Thank you Commissioner Moss.
Granted the water and sewer service is and should be centralized (aka county or other entity) But the truth is county shoves police and fire down new municipalities throats (see pinecrest).
I would rather incorporate all unincorporated areas either by annexation or creation of new municipalities and eliminating the county with the exception of courts and privatizing wasa (they've done it elsewhere with good results).
The state of conneticut did away with counties and eliminated an unnecesary level of beaurocarcy.
I agree. Every election, we constantly stress the corruption and inefficeincy of the county government. Have we forgotten the ill fated promises to "fix" mass transit, housing, etc? I challenge people to visit the incorporated cities of Miami Dade. Miami Gardens has beautified the city, and placed police cars everywhere; this for a city deamed to fail by opponents because of the large percentage of residents under the poverty line. But then you drive through South Miami Heights, and there is trash on the street, no police (At least I cant find them), and no sense of community. The county continues to profess doom and gloom if they dont get the tax dollars they need. Where is the doom and gloom reports of the municipalities? Sure we all are facing budget cuts, but it seems our county cannot get it straight. Again, I agree, shrink the county to its traditional purpose; courts, roads and and public works. Re enact an elected Sheriff and let communities choose who they want for fire services.
It is understandable that people are upset that certain programs will be cut. I too am a fan of programs that enrich the arts, protect children, and assist the elderly. But the arguement with the county needs to be on efficiency. They threaten us with cuts in order to keep their pockets full. What about opening county offices, and ledgers to the public? Why not let the Herald walk freely through county offices to see "How Bad" they are hurting? I am a county employee and can fairly say I may have 8 hours or "real" work a week. The rest of my week is comprised of drafting useless documentation which will in turn employ another county position. I say residents dictate that the county should open up and show everyone where billions go annually. I know it wont happen, they run a close knit operation to "serve" the public as they say. But I challenge anyone to push and see what county employees actually do.
Last anon,
No problem, go ahead and incorporate all the areas. oh yeah, wait, how's that Redland incorporation coming along?
UMSA millage is still well below the average of municipal millages, and the service is much better than most cities.
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Last Anon, you are clearly a County Crony... Why anyone wants to remain in the UMSA is beyond me. And, by the way, this County is always playing the UMSA against the incorporated areas. We need to have the County areas incorporate, and leave the County to deal with regional issues only, like seaport, airport and transit. Forget muni services. Let each City take care of its own. Why am I stuck with County fire in Pinecrest when I can get a much cheaper and better (Class I Fire Department) Coral Gables to service my area??? BS!!! Wake up and smell the roses people!
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