This page is to designed to provide scholars, students and journalist with up to date information of Miami-Dade politics and Florida politics. This site brings together election information from the Florida Division of Elections, Miami-Dade County, and newspaper from throughout the state. The page also provides data from opinion polls and election and demographic statistics.
The latest outrage to hit Miami-Dade County comes in the wake of the overwhelming defeat of County Mayor Alex Penelas proposal to raise the sales tax by one cent. The Moines would have gone to up-date the county's outdated transportation system. Most observers of Dade politics blamed the defeat on lack of voter confidence in county government. Voters simply did not trust the county to spend the money wisely or effectively. Analysts cited the frequent scandals at county hall as the principal reasons for the defeat of the tax hike. Moreover, most voters express skepticism over the wisdom of expanding metro rail as called for in the mayor's plan.
The county response to the defeat was typical of an arrogant and out of touch political class. The day after the election, July 30, the County Commission voted to raise the ceiling on the property tax, opening the way for a possible hike in property taxes. Mayor Penelas has subseqently (August 23) called for no tax increase, and instead has called on all county department to cut spending by 5%.
To make matters worse, Jackson Memorial Hospital (the public hospital for the county which is partly funded by a 1\2 cent sale tax) announced that it would grant no-bid contracts to its service providers. Opening the way for the hospital's directors to reward their friends by awarded them contracts without having to go through the indignity of actually competing for work. To his credit Mayor Penelas has urged Jackson to reconsider their decision to grant no-bid contracts. It should be noted that the county and its agencies frequently award no-bid contracts by declaring emergency.
In other scandal news the trail of State Senator Alberto Gutman is schedule
to open next month.
Demographic Data on Miami-Dade