If core services in Miami-Dade County get cut in the following months, it could be because of the sheriff.
After an intense budget debate where county commissioners tried to find money to accommodate Republican Sheriff Rosie Cordero Stutz’ ask for a 12% increase in her budget, that's a top line reality.
The county commission was not ready to give her that much money at a time when the county is already tightening its belt and other services — like late night bus routes — are being cut.
READ MORE: Miami commissioners begin $3.6B budget debate amid uncertainty over construction bond, Amendment 3
The face-off between the sheriff, the county commission and county mayor Daniella Levine Cava became the focal point of much of the conversation around the $14.3 billion budget that was passed early Friday morning. The conflict also foreshadows a dispute that will likely trail the county for years to come.
The sheriff's office budget will top $1 billion for the first time in the coming fiscal year. But Cordero-Stutz said if she didn’t get an additional money she requested, she could not rule out appealing the matter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet to possibly overrule the commission and force the county to cough up a roughly $45 million gap. The Cabinet operates as the Administration Commission, and it can take up budget appeals from constitutional officers like sheriffs.
“ It would not be really fair of me to stand here and say that I will take that off the table. I can't do that,” said Cordero-Stutz. “At the end of the day, I need a budget of my needs.”
“I don't think we should ever be governed by an implied or an expressed threat."Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III
Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III raised his eyebrows at the comments, and said that the county commission is responsible for funding the entire budget of the county, including transportation, parks, cultural and environmental programs and more. If the sheriff goes to Tallahassee to increase her budget, she would be forcing cuts from other county services or forcing the county to increase taxes, he said.
“ If the Cabinet wants to overrule us, they can do it. But when they do it, we'll come back here, and we will make those cuts. And we'll make those cuts, and we will tell everybody that these are the cuts that were made by the sheriff,” said Gilbert.
He spoke generally of the sheriff and the Cabinet: “Let them raise our taxes. Let them raise the bus fares. Let them close the parks. Let them fire the employees. But I will not.”
“I don't think we should ever be governed by an implied or an expressed threat,” announced Gilbert.
Cordero-Stutz later clarified: " I don't think it's fair for me to give away a right and a duty that I have to ensure that I can do my job ... It was never about making a threat."
Warnings
The exchange was a sharp reminder of the growing pains and the warnings associated with the sheriff’s office becoming an independent elected constitutional office. In 2018 Florida voters passed a statewide ballot amendment forcing every county in Florida to elect a sheriff as well as four other constitutional officers; Miami-Dade was the only county in the state without an elected sheriff.
As the matter was being debated in 2018, then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was strongly opposed to an independent elected sheriff in Miami-Dade, warning of the exact scenario that played out in the late hours between Thursday and Friday.
“You’ll have a completely separate department and elected official vying for the same tax dollars as, say, your parks department and public works,” Gimenez, now a Republican Congressman, told WLRN at the time.
“To the point where if they’re not happy with what the county is willing to provide to the department, they can go to the state and have the state arbitrate it and in effect, even force the county commission to raise taxes in order to provide more for that department.”
The ballot amendment was passed in 2018, but the Miami-Dade Police Department only became the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office in late 2024, when Cordero-Stutz was elected. Since 2022 the office budget has increased 36%, some of which was earmarked for transitioning into a sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Cordero-Stutz said she is contractually obligated to increase deputy salaries under a labor union agreement that was negotiated before she was elected. Cordero-Stutz had the choice of whether to recognize the union and inherit the contract throughout the transition and she chose to recognize it.
She said the $55 million increase proposed by the mayor’s administration would not even allow her to meet that contractual obligation to raise salaries for all 3,227 deputies by 7.5% for the coming twelve months.
“$62.5 million is just that commitment," she said. “ It just does not cover that bill."
The administration of county mayor Daniela Levine Cava offered Sheriff Cordero-Stutz’ office a 6% increase instead of her proposed 12%, and argued that based on attrition rates and vacancies, that the money should suffice.
“ We have a situation where there are three hundred vacancies currently [in the sheriff’s office],” said Levine Cava. “It doesn't make sense that the sheriff cannot meet the obligations of the collective bargaining agreement.”
The prolonged back and forth drew sighs from commissioners who were leery of the new reality of having to negotiate with a sheriff on a budget with the pending threat of running to Tallahassee to mediate. The county government operated a police department between 1967 and 2024, and it had free reign to set the budget without outside pressures.
Cuts to buses
The debate took place as the commission was forced to cut late night bus routes due to a lack of funding, and as funds for the county's Environmentally Endangered Lands program barely squeaked by with a full $20 million funding after commissioners dipped into reserves earmarked for environmental cleanups. The amount of money given to nonprofits was flat compared to last year, even as they cited rising inflation and costs.
The county is also facing a potential cliff of Amendment 3 passing, a proposed property tax cut for homesteaded property owners that could deplete county funding in coming years, should it pass in November.
With the uncertainty of the county's fiscal future, many labor unions representing county workers will not see any raises this year, although negotiations will re-open after the November election.
The overall longterm fiscal picture for the county is unclear, but few commissioners argue that it can't continuously be forced to fork over money to the sheriff's office without being forced to cut other services.
“ This is a problem that's going to continue to recur over and over. And by the way, it's not gonna occur just with Madam Sheriff. It's going to occur with the five constitutional officers,” said commissioner J.C. Bermudez.
The constitutional officers that can appeal to Tallahassee if they are not satisfied with their budget are: the Property Appraiser; the Tax Collector; the Supervisor of Elections; and the Clerk of Courts. The Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector are both newly elected offices in Miami-Dade.
“I don't wanna do this every year,” added commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins. “I don't wanna be in this position where we have to make choices like the choices that we are making this evening.”
At 1:00am the commission agreed to a motion made by board Chairman Anthony Rodriguez to give an additional $11.5 million to the sheriff’s office, money that was returned to the commission from Miami-Dade Tax Collector. Rodriguez said with that addition, the sheriff would at least be able to pay deputies 7.5% salary increases. Still, Rodriguez said he was worried that the sheriff could take the appeal to Tallahassee even after he tried to get her more money.
“ It does give me heartburn to get $11.5 million and put it into the sheriff's budget and still have her go and appeal to the state,” said Rodriguez.
