Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava unveiled her proposed budget for the new fiscal year and is recommending eliminating about 350 vacant jobs to help close a $400 million deficit.
“We can't have a deficit budget…there are reductions that I wish we did not have to make, but which were necessary to achieve a $402 million savings,” she said.
The mayor’s proposed budget calls for some administrative belt tightening by consolidating six offices. It also will recommend, for the first time in more than a decade, a fare increase for public transit. Riders would see a 50-cent hike.
She said part of the reason for the budget shortfall was linked to this year’s opening of five state-mandated, independent constitutional offices that included the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and tax collector’s office. The cluster of new offices makes up nearly half of the total budget gap, according to the mayor’s office.
“Over the last five years, we’ve worked hard to build an efficient, effective government that delivers the services our residents need to thrive – while keeping taxes low,” Levine Cava said in a statement. “Since I became Mayor we have made historic investments in public safety, housing, transit, and more, and we passed two consecutive years of tax cuts that brought our combined tax rate to the lowest since 1982.”
This year, however, she said the county is facing “a perfect storm of fiscal challenges.”
Commissioners will vote on a final budget in September. The new fiscal year starts October 1.
In an op-ed published Monday in the Miami Herald, Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto J. Gonzalez blamed the projected $402 million budget shortfall on “an out-of-control government.”
“Instead of fiscally disciplined and transparent budgeting, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s proposed budget is a cautionary tale of progressive governance,” he said.
