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There’s blood in the water in Miami-Dade — and the feeding frenzy is underway.
On Feb. 18, Miami-Dade County County Commissioners will discuss whether to begin negotiations with a private consortium for a new $2.3 billion trash incinerator. That’s billion, with a “B.” And if history tells us anything, it’s that the final number rarely goes down.
More than 340,000 households currently pay about $700 a year for county trash service. Financing $2.3 billion over 30 years — before you layer on operating costs, maintenance, insurance, legal fees, consultants, and the always-convenient “unexpected conditions” — could easily push annual system expenses into the hundreds of millions.
Do the math. Those $700 bills could creep past $1,000. And that’s in the fantasy scenario where construction runs on time, on budget, and without a single change order.
When was the last time that happened in South Florida?
Miami-Dade has a résumé here. The Marlins stadium deal was marketed as bold and visionary. But it ended up as a national cautionary tale about what happens when government enthusiasm outruns financial scrutiny. The political fallout was swift and severe, culminating in the recall of then-Mayor by one of the largest margins in history.
Voters have long memories when it comes to billion dollar mistakes.
So let’s ask the questions no one seems eager to answer.
Where is the fully competitive bidding process?
Where is the independent financial stress test?
Where is the side-by-side comparison of alternatives — including rebuilding at the existing site, distributed smaller facilities, or ironclad performance guarantees that actually protect ratepayers?
If this is the best possible deal, it should survive rigorous sunlight. If it doesn’t, taxpayers deserve to know why.
When government narrows the field, competition vanishes. When competition vanishes, costs rise. When costs rise, residents pay — for decades.
No one disputes that Miami-Dade needs reliable waste infrastructure. What residents should dispute is being asked to sign a $2.3 billion check before all the numbers are on the table.
This isn’t obstruction. It’s oversight.
And oversight is what separates smart public investment from another headline that begins, “How did this get so expensive?”
Miami-Dade doesn’t need another Marlins moment. It needs transparency before the ink dries — not regret after the bills arrive.
