The City of Miami has had financial difficulties, and faced a large budget deficit. The economy in South Florida isn’t doing well, so raising taxes would be a last resort, right?
Of course not–it’s the first choice. Mayor Carlos Alvarez proposed a 14% property tax increase, and Dade County Commissioners approved the increase (Miami and Dade County share government). Voters were not amused.
Bankrolled by automobile dealer Norman Braman, citizens forged a recall effort. This terse announcement in the New York Times notes that there will be a recall vote early in 2011. People aren’t happy about tax increases, and that’s especially true when the economy is down.
The real villain in South Florida (and in California) are wages for public employees. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. When I was growing up, public employees didn’t make a lot of money but did have generous benefits and pensions (pension relative to their salaries). Today, many (most?) public employees make better salaries than comparable employees in private industries, have better pension, and better benefits. That’s not sustainable, and there’s no way this can continue–in South Florida or in California.
Jerry Brown is basically saying the same message as Mayor Alvarez did: Either raise taxes or I’ll have to cut what the state (of California) does. There’s an alternate solution, but that’s not what his constituency wants, and that’s to cut pay and benefits for state employees.
Meanwhile, Miami also has possible corruption problems. Mayor Alvarez may not be around to see the end of this investigation, though.