The City of Miami is launching a departmental review to determine whether residents and businesses are getting their money’s worth from taxes paid to Miami-Dade County.
During last Thursday’s meeting, Miami commissioners discussed the city’s share of property taxes paid to Miami-Dade County and raised concerns that residents and businesses may be subsidizing services that primarily benefit other areas. The commission agreed to request a detailed report from city departments outlining which county services are actually provided to city residents before deciding on any potential policy changes.
The item was placed on the Oct. 9 agenda by Commissioner Joe Carollo, who led the discussion. “Out of every dollar that our residents or businesses pay in property taxes, 29% goes to the county. What do we get out of it?” he asked, estimating the amount at $562 million for the current fiscal year.
Mr. Carollo argued that many county services largely benefit unincorporated areas, while city residents see little direct return. “We need to stop taxation that we’re not getting anything for,” he said.
Mr. Carollo proposed that the commission formally ask the city administration, including police and fire departments, to report back on the services provided by the county so the commission can make an informed decision on next steps.
Other commissioners weighed in on the scope and timing of the review. Commissioner Damian Pardo noted, “We don’t have financials in front of us for the county. This is a much bigger issue than what you’re presenting,” and he questioned why the request was being made now instead of through staff briefings.
Mr. Carollo responded, “This is an organized way, we’re asking the manager, through each department director, to come back to us, and we can discuss what they give us and decide on what’s the next step that we would take.”
City Manager Art Noriega provided additional context, describing the city’s long-standing role as a “donor city.”
“This is a conversation I’ve had with some of you over the years as we’ve been doing budgets,” Mr. Noriega said. “More particularly, it’s a conversation I’ve had with both co-chairs managing the tax reform process at the state, relative to the fact that cities like ours, when you’re talking tax reform, we are a donor city.”
He added that the issue goes beyond local budgeting. “From a municipal perspective, we get hit twice,” Mr. Noriega said. “We get hit not only because we are a donor city, but also because we have an overwhelmingly high [number of] properties that are tax exempt within the city of Miami, mostly government, institutional, but also nonprofit. We generate no tax revenue from those, and still we provide services, particularly from a public safety perspective.”
“We provide more tax revenue for services that we don’t actively engage in, and as a result, there ought to be some renumeration back to us, or some consideration of that as we’re reevaluating the whole taxation process and the impacts it has on our residents,” he continued.
Mr. Noriega said he believes the analysis is warranted “if for no other reason than to inform this body, but also as a potential side benefit that we could provide the information to the state as they’re going through this process of evaluating tax reform.”
After a brief discussion, the commission directed Mr. Noriega to conduct a departmental review of what services the county provides in exchange for the 29% of property taxes collected from Miami residents and businesses.
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