Miami-Dade Commissioners To Vote On Max Tax Rate Tuesday
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - As Miami-Dade commissioners prepare to vote on the maximum tax rate Tuesday, Mayor Carlos Gimenez stressed his proposed budget as a "worst-case scenario" for the county.
Gimenez unveiled his roughly $6.2 billion last week, emphasizing concessions by unions would need to be made in order to keep services up and jobs untouched.
As it stands, the budget assumes no deals with labor unions will be reached.
In an op-ed published in the Miami Herald this weekend, the mayor said he wanted to "set the record straight" about the budget.
"The miscommunication I guess is that this is the budget that I want. These are the cuts that I want. These are the cuts that are necessary if we don't get the concessions. These are the cuts if we don't get the 15% in healthcare costs ," Gimenez told CBS4's Lauren Pastrana. "I'm not going to raise taxes. I will not recommend to raise taxes and I will fight raising taxes, because again, that also hurts the poorest of the poor."
Under Gimenez's plan, the proposed tax rate set by commissioners each year would remain flat.
A slice of the tax revenues typically earmarked for countywide services and fire rescue would instead be funneled into the library system.
Just shy of 700 jobs are on the line.
The President of Miami-Dade's Police Benevolent Association believes the cuts will negatively impact public safety.
The mayor says some units will be crime fighting reduced, but not eliminated.
"We'll be redeploying our forces. People in desk jobs that will be going back into the street. There are reductions in certain investigative units," Gimenez said. "I'll give you an example, we have four SWAT teams, we'll go down to three SWAT teams. But again, the day-to-day patrolling of the streets of Miami-Dade County will have the same number of officers on the streets of Miami-Dade County."
Tuesday's meeting is expected to last all day long.
The final budget won't be approved until September.
Click here to WATCH Lauren Pastrana's report.
RELATED CONTENT:
