|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Budgets are not just numbers. They are value statements that reveal whether a government is truly serving its people or serving itself.
That is why this year, I voted NO on the Miami-Dade County budget for FY 2025–26. It was not a decision I took lightly, but one made of conviction. When I looked at this budget, I saw a troubling pattern: a government that keeps growing larger, more expensive, and less sustainable, recognizing the County is facing shortfalls for the next 4 years, while families are asked to do more with less.
I have said this many times, and I will say it again: we don’t have a revenue problem, we have an expenditure problem. What Miami-Dade lacks is the discipline to spend responsibly and plan for the future.
Since 2021, Miami-Dade’s budget has grown by almost $3.8 billion, more than 40 percent in just a few years. During that same time, the county has added over 3,200 new employees. That’s a significant growth, but it hasn’t come with the kind of long-term planning, discipline, or results that families expect from their government.
Instead, residents are seeing higher costs in their daily lives. Water rates are going up. Solid waste fees are climbing. Month after month, residents see higher bills, while millions of dollars remain tied up in administrative positions that could be closed without affecting essential services. In Solid Waste alone, more than $2.4 million in administrative jobs remain open. Closing those positions could have spared residents from higher fees.\
There is a better path forward. We can shrink the size of government to meet current fiscal reality while protecting the services people depend on. That means closing unnecessary administrative positions, cutting non-essential travel and advertising, and carefully reviewing overtime and contracted services. It means making sure every dollar is used wisely to strengthen our community.
But the problem runs deeper than spending alone. The budget process itself is broken. Commissioners received the budget on July 15, leaving little time for meaningful discussion before public hearings. Too often, the information we need to make decisions arrives late, incomplete, or vague. This is not just frustrating, it undermines trust. A process that should be transparent and honest instead feels rushed and opaque. That must change.
I did not oppose this budget simply to say “no.” I opposed it because Miami-Dade deserves better. Families deserve a government that is transparent and plans beyond one year, not from crisis to crisis. They deserve leaders who make hard choices today, so our children are not paying for our mistakes tomorrow.
I will continue to fight for a budget that is fair, sustainable, and worthy of the people we serve, because in the end, fiscal responsibility is not just good policy, it is our duty.
It bears repeating: We don’t have a revenue problem, we have an expenditure problem.
Senator René García is a Miami-Dade County Commissioner, representing District 13
