Miami Approves $3.7 Billion Budget After Last-Minute Changes

Commissioners adopted the city’s record spending plan after last-minute changes shifted millions for festivals, personnel and other expenses. The amendment detailing those changes wasn’t publicly available before the final hearing.

Miami commissioners gave final approval Thursday to a record $3.7 billion city budget, keeping the property tax rate unchanged while adopting last-minute changes that shifted millions of dollars in spending.

Among them: additional money for festivals and special events, the distribution of $10.5 million in previously unexplained personnel savings across city departments and nearly $1 million in additional revenue expected from city marinas.

The changes were contained in a budget amendment dated Wednesday, the day before the final hearing, that was not publicly available before the meeting.

The final General Fund — the city’s primary operating account — is about $1.3 billion, up roughly $74 million from the current year. Together with the city’s other operating funds and capital spending plan, the overall budget totals about $3.7 billion.

The city’s property tax rate will remain at 7.108 mills for general operations, plus 0.2536 mills for debt service, for a combined rate of 7.3616 mills.

But a flat tax rate doesn’t mean flat tax collections. Fueled by another increase in taxable property values, Miami expects about $691 million in General Fund property-tax revenue next year, roughly $43 million more than budgeted this year.

The final hearing lasted just 53 minutes, with much of the commissioners’ discussion focused on one of the biggest last-minute changes: funding for festivals and special events.

The proposed budget had reduced citywide festival funding from about $3.43 million this year to $1.99 million, eliminating individual allocations for dozens of events. The amendment introduced Thursday restored the overall funding to roughly its current level.

The money is now divided among the five commission districts, ranging from $210,000 in District 2 to $1.45 million in District 5.

District 4 Commissioner Ralph Rosado questioned the disparity.

“There shouldn’t be a million-dollar gap between us,” he said.

But unlike in previous city budgets, the final amendment does not identify which individual festivals will receive money or how much they will receive, leaving commissioners to decide how their district allocations are distributed.

Rosado’s chief of staff, Leo Cosio, described the change as positive, telling the Spotlight it gives commissioners greater flexibility to raise or lower funding for individual events.

For event organizers, however, that means the adopted budget no longer guarantees a specific allocation.

Kimberly Davis, the president of the Coconut Grove Optimist Club, urged commissioners during public comment to continue supporting the annual celebration of Coconut Grove’s Bahamian heritage, which received $143,000 in city funding this year — roughly two-thirds of District 2’s entire festival allotment for the coming fiscal year. 

The amendment also resolves — at least on paper — another unexplained number the Spotlight identified before the vote: $10.5 million in anticipated savings from vacant or frozen positions.

In the proposed budget, the money appeared in a non-departmental account as “Attrition Savings,” accompanied by the explanation: “Frozen Positions pending distribution.”

As recently as Wednesday morning, a city spokesperson told the Spotlight that the $10.5 million represented frozen positions and that “the specific positions and departmental allocations have not yet been finalized.”

An amendment to the budget documents dated that same day distributes the savings across departments.

The reductions include about $3.75 million from the Building Department, $1.8 million from Parks and Recreation, $1.04 million from General Services Administration and $954,000 from Police, along with smaller amounts from numerous other departments.

Altogether, departmental appropriations were reduced by about $11.1 million — the $10.5 million attrition amount plus another $611,000 in additional attrition savings.

The amendment also adds $133,000 in spending for actuarial studies, while projecting an additional $950,000 in marina revenue from an updated fee schedule.

The changes increase the General Fund from about $1.2977 billion to $1.2987 billion and add about $2.4 million to the overall operating budget.

None of those changes was made public in advance of Thursday’s hearing, leaving no opportunity for public scrutiny before the vote.

For more than a week, the commission agenda had referenced an exhibit detailing the “applicable changes” to the budget, but the online file contained only a placeholder saying it would be “substituted and distributed at a later date.”

The Spotlight began requesting the exhibit Sunday, four days before the vote, and followed up repeatedly with the City Clerk’s Office and the city’s communications staff. The city acknowledged the request but did not provide the document.

A Spotlight reporter finally obtained a copy from the city clerk after requesting one as commissioners adjourned Thursday.

One subject that received considerable attention at the first budget hearing two weeks earlier did not return Thursday.

District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona had questioned how Miami’s employee costs compared with other large Florida cities and asked city administrators for a broader comparison before the final vote.

No expanded comparison was included in the publicly posted agenda materials, and commissioners did not return to the subject Thursday. A spokesperson for Escalona told the Spotlight that the administration proposed no change in salary spending.

The Spotlight conducted its own analysis before the vote of Florida’s six largest cities, finding that Miami and Tampa would each devote about 77% of their General Fund budgets to personnel, followed by St. Petersburg at 69%, Orlando at 62%, Jacksonville at 59% and Port St. Lucie at 58%.

During a public briefing with constituents before the final hearing, District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo defended the city’s personnel spending, saying competitive pay helps Miami attract and retain employees.

“It’s very easy to … put numbers on a screen and judge on that,” Pardo said. “I think that’s a very incomplete analysis.”

Miami will spend nearly $1 billion on salaries, wages and employee benefits next year — roughly $77 of every $100 spent from the General Fund.

The budget also leaves the city facing a much larger financial challenge beyond its day-to-day operations.

Miami’s capital plan identifies roughly $1.8 billion in projects and other needs for which no funding source has been identified. That includes $828 million in completely unfunded needs and roughly another $1 billion still unfunded within projects the city classifies as partially funded.

And voters will soon be asked to help pay for some of those needs. On Nov. 3, Miami voters will decide whether to authorize up to $450 million in general obligation bonds for police and fire facilities, including new fire stations and a new public safety headquarters.

The bonds would be repaid through property taxes, although the city says they can be financed without increasing the current debt millage rate.

Even the full $450 million would amount to only about one-quarter of the $1.8 billion in capital needs for which the city has yet to identify funding.

For a deeper dive, read the Spotlight’s three-part series on the City of Miami’s budget:

Read more: Miami’s Billion-Dollar Boom, Part 1: Where Did All the Money Go?

Read more: Miami’s Billion-Dollar Boom, Part 2: The Rising Cost of Public Safety

Read more: Miami’s Billion-Dollar Boom, Part 3: City Hall’s Growing Payroll

Anita Li and Sinclair Holian are Spotlight reporters and Report for America corps members covering Coconut Grove and Miami City Hall. They join us through our partnership with Report for America, a national organization that places journalists in local newsrooms across the United States.

David Villano contributed to this report.