Commission Approves Lowered Millage Rate

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Miami-Dade County Commissioners have approved new Mayor Carlos Gimenez's maximum millage rate of 9.74 in the next fiscal year, which is significantly lower than the current rate of 11.04.

The approval came as Gimenez presented his first budget proposal to the Miami-Dade Commission Tuesday. The budget cuts key programs, over 1,000 jobs, while cutting property taxes.

Gimenez has proposed to roll back the millage rate from 11.04 to 9.7. Gimenez promised during his campaign to lower property taxes from the rate set by former Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

Gimenez said Tuesday that adopting the millage rate he proposes in his budget would lower taxes this year, and keep taxes flat in the 2012-2013 budget; thereby balancing the books for two years to give the community some stability.

Based on the millage rate requested in Gimenez's budget, homeowners would save roughly $134 per $100,000 of property value. For the average homeowner with a $250,000 property, the savings would come out to roughly $335 in the coming year.

But, those calculations don't include "Save Our Homes" homestead exemptions.

Barbara Jordan questioned Gimenez's proposal saying that according to her calculation, North Miami and North Miami Beach may actually see a tax hike under the mayor's budget.  She cast the sole vote against accepting the 9.7 millage rate.

After the meeting Jordan explained, "we're not giving ourselves the flexibility.   What if we don't get the kind of concessions we need from the unions what if there are other things that need to be considered in terms of needing to be placed back into the budget? "

Mayor Gimenez said he was pleased with the vote.  He said the lower rate will bring tax relief, but acknowledged people will feel the cuts.

"Their basic services are going to be maintained and the services to the elderly and children are going to maintained, Gimenez said, "but there are going be some layoffs of personnel here and they are going to have to agree to some concessions in order to balance the budget."

Commission Chairman Joe Martinez said he will be putting together executive meetings in the coming days to start negotiations with the ten unions who will be expected to make changes to benefit plans.

County employees will be asked to contribute an additional five percent of their salaries to cover the costs of health insurance, effectively becoming a salary cut to all county workers.

Gimenez is also proposing doing away with merit pay, cost of living increases, and longevity pay. The mayor's budget also ends a planned three percent raise for police officers and ending a step increase that would have raised cops' pay.

The unions are expected to take the cuts to court and then back to the commissioners who will then have to vote on the cuts. The politically perilous cuts could put those looking to get re-elected in jeopardy with the unions.

As a result of all of the money not coming in to the county's coffers, there will be significant cuts to the county workforce and social safety net programs. Thirteen-hundred jobs will be cut, 500 of those are already vacant.

Gimenez's budget initially called for the closing of 13 libraries. But Tuesday, Gimenez had dropped the number to just nine. Commissioners were adamant about not closing the libraries; including Javier Souto who is spearheading a special plan to save any libraries from closing.

The budget meeting also dealt with the possibility of imposing major cuts to the Head Start program. This drew the attention of Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who came to County Hall Tuesday to fight for the program.

Gimenez has proposed cutting 400 county jobs from the program and privatizing the federally funded program. Congresswoman Wilson said she wanted the county to preserve Head Start the way it is and argued privatization would make things worse.

Gimenez said if the cuts to Head Start aren't made, it will make filling the $400 million budget gap even harder.

Other issues on the chopping block include the county's Boot Camp program, which served 200 juvenile offenders last year and cost the county nearly $5 million; and the Women's Detention Center which will save the county $3 million.

Budget hearings for the public to voice their complaints are set for September 8th and 22nd. A final budget must be settled by October 1st.