Well, it looks like the mayor blinked. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has closed the $400-million gap in the 2025-26 budget and still somehow restored every single dollar to the community-based organizations, the nonprofits whose funding has more than doubled in eight years and that every commissioner suddenly pretends is the only thing standing between […]
Was the county’s $402M budget gap just a drill? Remember that $402 million budget hole Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said we were staring down back in July? The one that justified chopping arts funding, pulling the plug on charity grants, hiking transit fees and even grounding the county’s rescue helicopters? Well, guess what. Most […]
Part 1 in a series of county budget coverage stories By the time Miami-Dade commissioners wrapped up their first budget hearing at 4:33 a.m. Friday, the only people left in the chambers were the diehards. And a very tired staff who must have had a lot of cafecito. But most of the 240 speakers during […]
Sheriff gets her millions; firefighters still up in the air Budget season is usually messy, but this summer has been a full-on disaster. And Thursday night at 5 p.m., Miami-Dade residents get their first chance to sound off at the budget hearing before commissioners take their first vote. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has been in […]
In her efforts to close a budget shortfall she says is caused by the sudden loss of COVID dollars and the five constitutional offices separating from the county, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava might be compromising public safety. Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz all but waved a big red siren this week, warning commissioners that […]
And county commissioners look for scapegoats As if she was reaching between the couch cushions, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava just magically found $66 million to soften the sting of her doom-and-gloom $13 million budget. After floating layoffs and slashing nonprofits last month, proposing increased fees all over to stop a $402 million hole from growing, the […]
Miami-Dade fire union has threatened legal action Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava may want to check her smoke alarms — because firefighters smell something funny rising out of the 2025-26 budget: A sneaky move to shift the estimated $30 million cost of running the countywide air rescue helicopters to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, which is funded […]
Eenie, meenie, miny, moe. A recent poll suggests Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava could just edge out Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in 2026. But wait, isn’t she going to run for governor? Levine Cava, who is termed out in 2028, hasn’t said a peep about either, but people keep imagining her into these races because […]
There are four public budget town halls this week It’s budget season, and you know what that means: the spin cycle is on high. Facing a gaping $402 million hole in the county coffers, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is out here trying to sell her $12.9 billion budget for 2025-26 as “fair and balanced.” […]
Rosie Cordero-Stutz says she inherited rising costs The newly-elected Miami-Dade sheriff is not happy about the dollar amount that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava‘s proposed budget sets aside for her new, constitutional office and has sounded the alarm in recent days, warning that proposed cuts could leave the sheriff’s office disarmed and dangerously under-resourced at a […]