Dade Commission To Hold Final Vote On Budget
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami-Dade commissioners are scheduled to take a final vote on a $6.2 billion budget.
Commissioners are looking at a spending plan that mostly avoids deep cuts and pushes some big expenses back a few years, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
Under the budget proposal, no police positions will be eliminated, bus fares would not be raised and funding will continue for the boot camp program.
A higher "library tax" will allow for expanded branch hours and services.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez's budget plan calls for 10 percent cut to charity and arts grants which will be debated Thursday's hearing at County Hall. Similar cuts to county small-business grants survived intact, too, according to the Miami Herald.
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The mayor is facing pressure to restore a $1.4 million increase to the $2.5 million in hotel taxes the Pérez Art Museum Miami already receives, according to the Miami Herald. Gimenez nixed the increase in favor of saving jobs in the police department.
The shift marked a milestone, as it was the first time Gimenez directly linked police jobs to the roughly $100 million hotel-tax stream. The mayor's budget team found a way to circumvent state restrictions on how to spend hotel taxes by funneling it through Zoo Miami, which is eligible for the tourist-generated money but is usually subsidized with property taxes, according to the Miami Herald. About $1.4 million in freed-up property taxes will head from the zoo to police under the Gimenez budget.
Overall, the county's combined property tax is set to rise less than 1 percent to about $976 for every $100,000 of a property's assessed value, according to the Miami Herald.
Click Here for more on Mayor Gimenez's budget proposal.
CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed to this report.
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