On tonight’s big budget night, which everyone has been anticipating, commissioners are flying blind. Pretty much just like the rest of us. That’s because the last minute about-face made by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who first proposed a small tax increase to maintain services and then switched to a more politically convenient (really? how’s […]
Pick a commissioner, any commissioner. A group of activists will go to County Hall this afternoon and pick a name out of the hat. The winner, if we can call the chosen that, will face a recall effort for their vote on keeping the tax rate flat and slashing county services. “We are on a […]
Remember way back when in June, when Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez wanted to raise taxes just a bit, less than a 4.5 percent, to keep services in tact and libraries open all the hours that we are accustomed to? Well, he didn’t do backwards flip flop to a zero increase because it was his own […]
Look like it’s going to be a busy week in the 305 for political intrigue, what with a caliente county commission meeting, the arraignments of two allegedly corrupt elected leaders, a hearing for a Hialeah boletero and the qualifying deadlines for the suddenly open seats in Miami Lakes due to the mayor’s arrest. Ladra expects […]
Ladra would like to start a new feature on weekends: cartoons. Check out this first one that I got in an email from Mike Burke. He titled it “Let ’em eat cake.” After getting Burke’s somewhat childlike yet perfectly on-point cartoon in an email, and getting his permission to reprint it, I figured I would […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in July, when he presented his severe budget cuts at a county commission meeting, that he was no magician. But it turns out he did have a few tricks up his sleeve. It’s really no surprise to anyone that no libraries are closing. We heard the drumroll as we saw […]
The Miami Dolphins trump the community again. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has cancelled Tuesday night’s budget town hall in Florida City — which has been advertised for a month — so he could go to Washington, D.C., to help celebrate the 1972 champion football team being recognized by President Barack Obama in what seems like […]
According to a recent poll, many people think our county firefighters do a better job than the mayor. A survey of 450 voters who were called live from Aug. 2 to Aug. 5, voters gave our first responders more than twice as many approval points as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Not So Golden Boy” Gimenez. Almost […]
Maybe he was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez made a very well publicized about face last month when he backward flipped on his original budget proposal — going from what he said would be a necessary but small tax hike to keep services at current levels to a […]
Miami-Dade Firefighters – already in shock about the mayor’s about face on the budget for next year, which calls for six to eight stations to be shut down and 144 firefighters to be fired – got another surprise Friday. In a meeting they requested to go over the rolling brownouts due to the $15 million […]