It’s hard to believe it, but we saw it with our own eyes. And it’s on video tape for proof: One after another, people came before the Miami-Dade County Commission T
uesday evening and basically begged commissioners to tax them further to save libraries, fire-rescue services and dogs and cats. But mostly libraries.
More than eight hours later, it wasn’t even necessary: Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who once said he was not a magician in reference to the budget, will pull another rabbit out of his hat. He will go into the reserves, after all, to make sure libraries operate at current levels while he looks for a permanent solution for next year.
Only a little earlier, about seven hours into the meeting, it looked like at least seven commissioners of the 13 were ready to increase the library tax rate. But before that could happen, the mayor volunteered — voila, again — to magically resolve the issue without that nasty tax business he seems to be so scared of.
By the time the meeting ended at 1:35 a.m. Wednesday, Gimenez had promised to find the monies needed in reserves, do an audit to find out if the county had to repay any of the monies it had taken from raiding the library fund piggy bank and to form a committee that would study options — including private/public partnerships with entities like Starbuck’s — to make sure we are not sitting in the same position next year.
Only two or three people from the dozens who spoke for five and a half hours said they did not want taxes raised no matter what. Everybody else said that whatever it took, even a small hike in taxes, it was worth it to save the full operations at libraries — not the part-time, hack-sawed system Mayor Gimenez had proposed.
Ladra heard them talk about the no-kill shelter and restoring fire rescue services, too.
But the library advocates definitely dominated the night.
And that kind of hammering seems to have had some effect on the commission, since several of them — including Commissioners Xavier “Mayor Sir” Suarez, Bruno Barreiro and Sally Heyman — announced that they were ready to vote for an increase in the library tax, even if it meant a cost of $700,000 to remail trim notices.
With the addition of Commissioners Barbara Jordan, Dennis Moss, Barbara Edmonson and Jean Monestime, the library advocates would have likely had the votes it needed to raise their tax base.
But, apparently, the mayor saw the writing on the wall and started backpedaling — he had earlier said he would not use reserve monies to shore up the shortfall — to make sure that he didn’t get embarrassed that much by a coup on his commission.
Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa also wanted to do everything first that could be done without raising the tax rate and asked Gimenez to come back to the second hearing on the 19th with recommendations on how to fully fund the libraries at current service levels.
“Yes, I heard the people,” Gimenez said. “They want us to stop what we were doing. And we are going to do that. But we are going to do that in a responsible way.”
At the end of the day, Gimenez had convinced commissioners not to raise the library millage because he’s going to take care of it this year. He said he needed them to take a serious look at the situation for next year because we will be in the same position, since we are plugging the hole with a non-recurring source.
“You can take that same vote next year. We don’t have to do it this year,” Gimenez said.
Some additional funding sources tossed around as ideas for next year were the Children’s Trust to the Miami-Dade School Board to partnerships with concessions like Starbuck’s — which the mayor said opened a store in a Tokyo library where visitors went up 500 percent — to individual donations from us in the community. Yeah, I welcome the chance to earmark funds for fire rescue services, but I am not sure how that is going to work. And if the community volunteers to donate enough funds, I am sure it will just result in more cuts suggested by the administration in the tax base.
Anyway, isn’t that kind of like double taxation? And I’m not sure I like the idea of donations taking the place of tax collected dollars. That’s a Pandora’s Box that could become a nightmare of its own.
Ladra likes Commissioner Javier Souto‘s suggestion much better. He talked about forming like a library PAC and tapping the same people who give to political campaigns for it — or at least that’s what I think he said.
“I have friends. The mayor has friends,” Souto said. “And our friends can spend a lot of money. Some of us have friends with a lot of money. Want me to be more specific?” I crossed my fingers but he didn’t name names.
“We know where the money is and we know where the money is needed,” Souto added. “We should give it a good try, all of us, to make sure that the libraries go back to the usual hours.”
Commissioners Juan Zapata and Lynda Bell said they would not change from their original position of maintaining a zero tax increase, even if that meant cutting services. Bell said she wouldn’t change her mind, “even under threat of recall.” Commissioner Esteban Bovo also stood his ground.
“I sit in this chair the product of a recall, so I understand full well the impact of not paying attention,” he said, and then proceeded to ignore the people who spoke before him, saying that even a tiny tax increase would hurt some in the community. “Even $11, $12, $15 is a catastrophic number for these people. For some people it is devastating.”
He also brought up again the fact that some union employees are paid by taxpayers for the time they spend on union duties, saying that he’d like to see that $3.3 million used elsewhere. But he forgot, again, to quantify that with the fact that this was negotiated into their contract in exchange for something else.
Sosa did not seem willing to do that. She said she wanted to find the monies to restore library services without having to resend trim notices. I guess she has more confidence in the administration than Ladra and the speakers have.
“This is not our first budget. We do this every year. And the message we send the community is terrible,” Sosa said.
But what message is she talking about? The one where they tell the voters that they are listening to them, after the fact anyway? Or the one where they turn a deaf ear and do what they want?
Said Gimenez: “By the next budget hearing, I am pretty confident we are going to be able to do something about the libraries.”
That’s great, Mr. Mayor. But what about the firefighters and the voter-mandated animal services improvements?
“Keeping the rescue department intact is a priority also,” Sosa said, and there is hope that a federal grant will also keep our rescue services afloat for at least another two years. We won’t know for another couple of months, but we’re counting on it.
I guess people can also individually donate to that department once the county prepares it’s own by-category PayPal system.
Libraries saved: Carlos Gimenez performs another magic trick added by Ladra on
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