Public begins to weigh in on proposed Miami-Dade tax rate
By Patricia Mazzei and Douglas Hanks, The Miami Herald | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Most asked county commissioners to protect public services -- especially libraries, police and fire -- even if that means raising the tax rate, something Mayor
"Don't let the mayor back you into a corner," said
Library advocates made up the bulk of the crowd that packed the commission chambers since early Tuesday to oppose Gimenez's proposal, which would keep the tax rate flat and result in 90 library-department layoffs. All library branches would remain open, with regional libraries opening on Sundays instead of Fridays.
Already, libraries struggle to keep up with checking in books and helping patrons who need assistance applying for unemployment or preparing a resume, librarian
"There are days when we are so short-staffed that I miss answering phone calls at the branch," said Yuhico, of West Kendall. "There's a long line at the reference desk, and there's no one else to field queries. If this is happening now, what will happen when you continue to lay off trained staff?"
And library patrons notice, said
"Every time I go online to find a book written after 2012, I find it's not available. I'm Number 86 on a list to get a book," she said. "I urge you to restore the library budget. You will not be punished."
Some library supporters arrived at County Hall before
Gimenez has proposed a budget that would keep tax rates flat but increase transit fares and park fees, cut services and eliminate 674 jobs, including more than 200 police officers. Charity grants for nonprofits known as community-based organizations would be slashed 10 percent.
The budget pain could be avoided, Gimenez told commissioners, if labor unions agree to extend pay concessions and to a redesign of the county's health-insurance plan that would make it less generous.
"Why did I put [cuts] in the budget?....What history has told me in the past is when the unions come here asking for their concessions, they get them," he said, asking commissioners to "stand firm."
Labor leaders have countered that the administration has been hurting employees for three years with concessions that hit their pocketbooks. One county employee told commissioners that the givebacks of the past few years have hit him hard.
"My salary is
But not everyone in the public hearing criticized the mayor's stance.
"It's a chip-away mentality," he said. "It's a couple of bucks here. It's a couple of bucks there. What about the people on fixed incomes?"
Inside the chambers, library advocates wore turquoise blue. Firefighters wore canary yellow. They had to wait more than three hours for commissioners, who started their meeting 20 minutes late, to get through other business before launching the tax-rate discussion. It opened in raucous fashion, with a speaker yelling from the podium that he could shoot commissioners. He was escorted out of the chambers by the sergeant-at-arms and arrested.
Library supporters brought a cooler outside the chambers filled with water bottles and
The group, Community Advocates for Libraries in
Minutes later, at around
"I see a lot of young people in the libraries," said Neovahani Bryan, 17, an MDC student turned away from the chambers for lack of a seat. "I go to the library once a week. I check out books to save money. I use the Internet to print stuff."
The meeting is expected to last all day at the second floor of the Stephen P. Clark
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