Things to consider...

Things to Consider on becoming "citified"

1. Only 15% of Miami-Dade County's land mass is presently within municipalities.

2. 85% is STILL in unincorporated Dade.So....which do you think provides the most opportunity for future construction-whether commercial or residential? (permitting is already up in unincorporated Dade by about 24%)
Where is the land diversity, especially agricultural, that a sustainable community should have? Which area do you think will provide the space for a constantly burgeoning population and it's added tax rolls?

Are there going to be ongoing problems with traffic and the funding to provide services? Yep.
Why is all the UMSA money from the Peoples Transportation Tax being used for the mass transit of Metrorail, additionally being supplemented by the General fund, while up to 24% of the money is being handed over to municipalities so they can have free trollies(which, if you'll notice are mostly ALL very close to the mass transit lines already)? Wouldn't it be better utilized where it will do the larger County the most good, for major mass transportation improvements?

3. We should be asking for a transparent method for residents to determine how their monies are allotted and spent and on what. This is especially important for police services, since we are told that upwards of 70% of an areas budget is for police services. Special Police Services are an even bigger nut to crack. I was told by several people that this was never paid by any of the cities, even when they were required to pay mitigation. I was told by the budget director that three cities had paid for Specialized Police Service, but when I asked her how I could see where that was refunded to Dade's coffers, I wasn't provided with anything I could confirm one way or the other. Now we're told that Specialized Police Services are paid out of the County-wide taxes that we ALL pay into. So what that means is that the people of UMSA, unincorporated Dade County, are helping to foot the bills of every class one crime that occurs within any city. The reverse is also true, but the problem is that about 70% of the class one crimes are committed inside city boundaries. So who's getting the raw end of the deal on this one? Why should we subsidize the losses of cities? Didn't they want to be self sufficient?

4. Not too long ago the residents voted for a strong Mayor form of government. Now, all the Department Directors in the County work at the pleasure of the Mayor and only the Mayor.

I suspect this makes it very hard, not only for regular stiffs like me, but also Commissioners to get any substantive information from a department if the information doesn't want to be given.

5. Also, not long ago, residents voted in term limits for the County Commissioners. Now, I don't care how anyone feels about this one way or another, but what it DOES do, is create another group of politicos who will be looking for new positions when they are termed out at the County level.

(at least for one election cycle-I'm not sure whether they can run again for the Commission after sitting out one term)

The more cities, the better for the plethora of political wannabes. We also presently have too many attorneys, accountants, city managers looking for a good steady source of income, pensions, and healthcare.

6. On the Task force we were told that UMSA was hurting financially and would not be able to provide the services to the residents in the future that should be provided. We were given a packet of needs that couldn't be met by this budget because there just wasn't the funds being generated in UMSA. But...when I checked the packet, most, MOST of the improvements needed were not just for the benefit of UMSA, but would benefit ALL of Miami Dade County. Therefore, it appears that the COUNTY-WIDE millage ALSO needs to be increased so ALL properties, including those in municipalities, pay their fair portion towards the county-wide needs. Certainly, UMSA millage may need to be raised as well, but it's funds should be earmarked for ONLY UMSA needs, not repurposed to the County-wide budget to supplement what we ALL are already taxed to contribute to. That would be double dipping into our unincorporated pockets unfairly.

7. We should be seriously concerned with current elected officials who choose to ignore their constituents, rather than addressing valid concerns. I understand why some interests receive more "attention" than others. But this layer of government will not be going away, even if we incorporate.

8. If you look at the cities that have been created and then the amount of money being spent on their elected officials, departments, and infrastructure, very little of the increase in money collected through the higher millage rates charged is left over for any new amenities.
Is government "closer to the people" and evening Council meetings really worth the additional expense?

9. The League of Cities and the non profit called LINC have active participants trying to incorporate all of Dade County. I guess it makes sense since the League would just love to increase its dues collections? And I wonder if any of our UMSA tax dollars are given to this league? And both organizations seem to work well for finding their ilk more government positions. But is that what we all really need?

10. Just a few of my thoughts. We all need to be cognizant of what our elected representatives say, but then DO. They need to be held accountable for their votes. The general feeling is that the general public doesn't have a clue and is too busy or could care less to what is going on. We need to prove them wrong. There are only two things pols seem to be beholding to; campaign money and votes. Since we all probably don't have enough coin to impress any of them, we need to vote knowledgeably.

Debbie Lamb