MIAMI (WSVN) - A budget battle is taking place at a Miami-Dade commission meeting over proposed cuts outlined in Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s budget.
Commissioners met Wednesday to discuss several updates to the mayor’s budget.
Following her original spending plan, that looked to fix a $400 million deficit, Levine Cava said $66 million have been recovered.
“We’re going to go forward, continuing to find savings this is not just a one time situation, but we are very confident that we have produced a fair and realistic, and compassionate budget,” said Levine Cava.
The mayor faced backlash from several groups, including artists, non profits and senior citizens who feel that they were left out of the initial budget proposal.
“They should be pissed off. As a matter of fact, when you are trying to figure out how did we get here, you should be pissed,” said Miami-Dade County Vice Chairman Kionne L. McGhee.
But Levine Cava said her latest proposal intends to either fully or partially fund programs and services like public safety, roads, parks, arts, taxes and transportation.
At Wednesday’s meeting, nearly 100 firefighters all dressed in yellow were present. They reminded commissioners that funding for air rescue is critically important.
“The big issue today is, for the first time in 40 years, air rescue, which is the helicopters that provide air ambulance service, fight wildfires, perform a search and rescue missions, and fly regionally with state and federal partners and surrounding counties, that funding is being shifted suddenly and completely into the fire rescue taxing district” said William McAllister, President of Metro-Dade Firefighters.
McAllister worries that the shift in funds is limiting their ability to respond to calls fast enough during emergencies, sometimes at the cost of lives.
“This is causing us not to be able to put new engines and new rescues in the streets. Currently, our response time is over nine minutes to life-threatening calls, it’s just too long to wait, people will die,” said McAllister.
Additionally, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz requested an additional $93 million to operate the police academy program.
“Every month we are losing deputies. If I don’t start academy classes, I will not have backfill. Therefore, we will not have the same service that we have today,” she said.
As the different groups push for their funding levels, commissioners are still figuring out how best to balance the budget.
“What projects do we have funding for? Should we invest in? And what projects should we stop planning?” said Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel A. Regalado.
“The mayor needs to be transparent. The budgeting program needs to be transparent and the commissioners need to transparently look at all these numbers, line by line, if we are really gonna put this together for the benefit of the residents,” said Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto J. Gonzalez.
Two public hearings are still expected, with a final budget vote happening on Sept. 18.
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