Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Sour Day in Miami-Dade. By Geniusofdespair

Miami Dade's tax roll is expected to plunge by 35 billion. Jackson Memorial is cutting 900 jobs and it has 712 million dollars of bad debt. Miami Dade Schools are expecting the State to cut $150 million from their budget.

More important to me, I have been watching LOST, the TV series, for about 6 years now and I don't have a clue on what is going on, making it more apparent that I have been wasting precious hours of my life every week on drivel. But, you know I will watch it tonight anyway, because somehow I have the belief it will all make sense even though I know there are more holes in the plot than Swiss cheese. It is sort of like watching the City of Miami or Miami Dade County grappling with their budget. You know in your heart the budgets will never make sense, or balance, with bloated pensions and misguided union contracts but you are always hoping. It is agonizing to see holes and watch folks trying to fill them.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Budget holes are the 2 words for everyone and everything in Miami.

miaexile said...

On my one residential street in North Miami, there are tax cheats galore. When I keep hearing about the plunge in property taxe revenue, and I look at the high unemployment numbers, I wonder what it would take to get people walking every street of Miami-Dade county and re-assessing the following:
1. is the house truly owner occupied to qualify for homestead exemptions ( 2 out of 16 houses in my block fraudulently claim this )
2.does the house size match the size on the tax rolls ( 9 out of 16 houses on my block have added additional square footage, without permits I presume, that is not reflected on the tax rolls )

This is one little street - how much revenue is lost thru cheating?

Anonymous said...

Miaexile makes a perfect point and in addition single family homes are being lived in with multiple families. They could be added to the tax rolls as duplex & tri-plex tax structure.--a plus for the city & county coffer.

Riley

Anonymous said...

You forgot about the Sea Level Rise. Some scientist in Sweden said it rose approximately 2 ft. yesterday around 6 pm.

Run for the hills!

m

Malcolm said...

The distress facing our community is just one piece of a very big problem.

Imagine the economic system as the house we all live in.

It can no longer provide gainful employment to millions of people who have worked hard their whole lives.

It can no longer provide shelter for millions who once owned their own homes.

It can no longer provide access to health care or education for millions.

It can no longer provide clean air to breathe nor clean water to drink for millions.

Millions of its children are undernourished and malnourished and depend on food stamps for survival.

It can no longer care for millions of its elderly.

It is a house that deserves to catch on fire.

It is a house that should burn down.

CATO said...

WOW Miaexile you must have been one of those CDR (Comite de Defense da la Revolucion) folks in Cuba that you to watch my grandparents very closely (how nice of them to be so concerned).

You make "perfect sense" people are losing their jobs, getting their hours scaled back, losing their homes and in general most of us are working more to make less if we are working at all. So I think raising taxes is a great idea as well as putting more presure on families that are in survival mode, you guys are just BRILLIANT! Let me guess miaexile you lost your job at Team Metro or NET?

I'm reccomending you and your admiring anon to Obama to be economic czars. With you two in charge this recession will be over faster than you can say Cash for Clunkers or TARP.

Malcolm put the bong down. Trust me in your case its not helping.

CATO said...

Before i get called on it "that use to"

miaexile said...

CATO - sorry to disappoint but I'm employed in the private sector and am part of that dwindling crowd known as wasp. No spying involved. All it takes is a few minutes to peruse public information thru them thar internets and a walk around the block and it's easy to put 2 and 2 together. Public information can be an eye opener -not sure where you live, but in my 'hood it's a positive to know your neighbors and be aware of your surroundings. Have you seen the crime stats for North Miami- they're off the charts! Besides, tax cheats really piss me off. It's kind of sad you'd link people who cheat on paying their fair share of property taxes with Cuba. In these times, it really does take a village to keep safe, keep the schools funded, keep the roads maintained, the trash picked up, the streets policed, the fire department funded - if we all cheated, what kind of society would we have?

CATO said...

I feels for you in NM and I also despise folks who cheat but the biggest CHEATERs are the high salaried Bozo's in Federal State and Local gubment along with all the cheating going on with contracts that's whats causing this mess, squeezing folks on their last dime ain't going to solve a darn thing at least not under current conditions.
Unfortunately cheating is becoming a survival skill and that is really unfortunate.
"Don't Steal the Government Hates Competition"

swampthing said...

John Locke would approve.

LOST rocks on netflx, it's like gilligan's island for the NWO.


Takes the craftiness of a swiss family robinson to reconcile the swamptax.

Anonymous said...

I love this blog...

miaexile said...

CATO - one last comment on the cheaters who claim homestead exemption while renting out their homes --- one of those in question on my street always shows up to "show" the house to potential realtors in a brand new Audi SUV - somehow, something tells me this cheater wouldn't be squeezed on their last dime...in fact, with all the cheats/scams going on with property taxes, it in fact makes the rates go up for all of us who aren't cheating.
Government mis-managing the revenue they do collect is another discussion. None of us can sit back any longer and assume government is running things with our best interests at heart.

Anonymous said...

I love this blog
It's my kind of place
Just the mention of a scandal
Puts a big smile on my face

OH-oh-oh-oh-oh, I love this blog.

Geniusofdespair said...

Thank you reader. Tell your friends about us. We appreciate your words of...poetry? Almost.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I was channeling my inner Toby. Yes, I tell many about the blog, GoD.