Miami-Dade County is heading for challenging financial times, and we are not ready.  I voted against the FY 26-27 budget because it keeps the status quo for another year. What Miami-Dade County government really needs is foundational and structural change. Regardless of what happens this November w ith Amendment 3, County Commissioners will continue to face pressure to reduce the size of government by finding ways to cut the budget. If past practice is an indicator, the County administration will recommend higher taxes, rates and fees, or cuts affecting bus operators, sanitation crews, and park attendants. They’ll jeopardize the hardworking men and women who make our County run. Meanwhile, no one is looking at the most egregious bloat: the County bureaucracy at the top.  According to a state report, more than 3,700 County positions are managerial, and more than 500 supervise one person or no one at all. There are chiefs, senior advisors, special project administrators, all executives, all making over six figures, with little to no true supervisory roles.  Some departments have eight, nine, up to thirteen managerial layers. It’s like a very expensive never ending top-heavy wedding cake. It is time that the County start cutting management, setting up reasonable supervisor responsibilities, and bring excessive salaries under control. Transit illustrates the problem. We are told that there is no money for the SMART plan. We are also asked to raise bus fares while routes are on the chopping block. The administration even used money that was supposed to go toward rail expansion to plug a budget hole in the transit department. And yet, the department director has twelve direct reports, five of which are advisory. There’s a Special Projects Administrator, a Chief Strategy Officer, a Chief for Legislative / Intergovernmental Affairs, a Chief for Civil Rights and Labor Relations, and a Chief External Affairs officer supervising two marketing and communications managers who supervise a graphic designer supervisor and a social media manager who in turn supervise others. It’s Chief inflation! Overtime in transit has increased from a projected $61.7 million in FY 25-26 to $75.37 million in this year’s budget. The department says they have a plan to reduce overtime but this issue isn’t new. It should have been fixed by now. This is why I am holding the department accountable by making them explain any future increases to overtime. The County is now spending millions more each year to support transit, money that could have been used in other ways, or returned to taxpayers.  And yet, increases to fares and the gas tax are being contemplated. I simply cannot support asking transit riders and drivers to pay more before real efficiencies are implemented. Rising healthcare costs is another area of concern. When the County switched healthcare providers last year, a decision I voted against, we were promised savings “upwards of $40 million per year.” When I asked about those savings, I was told the County does not yet have the claims data needed to analyze the 2026 savings. But the County’s own budget books warns that escalating healthcare costs are expected to challenge its ability to maintain projected savings and may require plan modifications. Bottom line, are we going to save money or not? Ultimately, that is the main question. Right now, the County government operates on controlling the speed at which is grows. But, can we actually reduce government? Can we save money or not? The answer to this question affects the pocketbook of everyone who calls Miami-Dade home.  Budgets reflect priorities. It’s true at home, and it’s true in government. We cannot have Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies putting their lives on the line and not getting paid enough.  We cannot have restaurant and hotel workers scraping by and worrying about the bus that gets them to work.  We cannot have people stuck in traffic while paying more in taxes and fees without seeing better services. We cannot keep asking families to sacrifice and give more while government continues to grow and grow. Government isn’t some separate creature with a never-ending appetite for taxpayer money.  In the end, government is We the People. And We the People are overtaxed. Real changes that actually shrink the bureaucracy must be made now. Miami-Dade County government can’t keep growing and kicking the proverbial can down the road. Especially when we are running out of road. Roberto J. Gonzalez is a Miami-Dade County commissioner representing District 11. He serves as the Chairman of the Safety and Health Committee. The post A Budget Bloated by Chief Inflation: Why I Voted No appeared first on Miami’s Community News. ...read more read less