Miami-Dade commission vote for slight property-tax rate hike to help libraries
By Patricia Mazzei and Douglas Hanks, The Miami Herald | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Libraries aside, commissioners adopted the other tax rates proposed by Mayor
"I'm going to have to consider my actions," he told reporters after the meeting. "But everything else is what I wanted."
Still on the table are more than 200 police layoffs, less-frequent parks maintenance and an increase to transit fares. Gimenez's proposal would eliminate nearly 600 county jobs if the county is unable to extract union concessions. A significant chunk would come from police ranks.
Commissioners sounded unhappy about police layoffs and other fee hikes, including higher transit fares for the disabled -- but not enough to buck Gimenez as they did with libraries.
"We have a government that in a way is undermining public safety," Commissioner
Under the commission plan, the overall county tax rate would go up by 0.47 percent compared to this year. But because that rate is made up of six individual rates, the actual increase to the library tax -- whose rate is relatively small -- would be 19 percent.
A homeowner in an unincorporated area such as Kendall with a taxable value of
"We are obviously happy that nobody [in libraries] will be laid off," said Gormley, whose husband works in the library system. "But the ability to provide enhanced services at the library is still limited. All we did is save the jobs."
Gimenez trumpeted commissioners' votes on the other tax rates -- which fund the fire department and all other county services -- as a clear message to labor unions that commissioners prefer pay and benefit concessions from employees to asking homeowners to pay much more in taxes.
"It sends a signal to most of the unions that commissioners want the concessions to continue," he said. "Let's sit down and solve this."
The 8-5 vote leaves Gimenez with 10 days to decide whether to veto the decision by the 13-member commission. A two-thirds vote of commissioners present is required to override a mayoral veto.
If Gimenez were to wield his veto pen, commissioners would likely have to take up the question again later this month, before their annual summer break in August.
Commissioners agreed to set the library tax-rate ceiling high enough that they could eventually authorize
Though they won't vote on a final budget and tax rate until September, in practice commissioners may lower -- but not raise -- the rate after property owners are notified in August of their likely bills.
Voting in favor of the higher library ceiling were Monestime, vice-chairwoman
Bell, Diaz, Monestime and Souto face reelection next month.
An earlier attempt to bring the tax rate high enough to fund the libraries at
The strongest support for Gimenez's budget came from Zapata, who chastised the county for putting off cutbacks he considers necessary for the long term.
"For far too long, we've failed to budget and plan for the future," he said.
Gimenez says those reductions and fee hikes could go away if the county ends pay perks for unionized employees. About
Some commissioners sounded open to the insurance-plan idea but wanted more details.
"If we want to have a first-class workforce, we need to have first-class pay," Monestime said.
One county employee told commissioners that the givebacks of the past few years have hit him hard.
"My salary is
Fear of cuts drew more than 100 people to County Hall who urged commissioners for more than three hours to raise the tax rate -- called the "millage" -- despite Gimenez's potential veto.
"Please raise my millage," said
Speaker after speaker praised the library system as a haven for children, seniors and the unemployed, who rely on librarian assistance to write resumes and apply for new jobs.
Librarian
Without the higher library rate, Gimenez's budget would have eliminated 90 library positions.
There were also other service reductions and fee hikes that troubled residents.
The speakers' podium was lowered twice to accommodate people on wheelchairs protesting the plan to increase disabled-transit fares. Gimenez's budget initially called for the cost per ride to go up to
"A lot of disabled people are going to be stuck in their homes," he said. "Please keep the disabled going out and enjoying life."
But not everyone in the public hearing criticized the mayor's stance.
"It's a chip-away mentality," he said. "It's a couple of bucks here. It's a couple of bucks there. What about the people on fixed incomes?"
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