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Miami's Big Budget Problem

Miami-Dade must reapprove the budget and tax rate after Florida finds that the county messed up a single number in a newspaper advertisement in mid-September detailing its proposed taxes.

Miami-Dade County’s government thought it had finished with its 2015 budget in September after two months of rewriting, six town-hall style meetings and two public hearings that culminated with votes from county commissioners. Not so fast.

A state agency is forcing the county to adopt its property-tax rate and budget again, nearly two months after the Oct.1 start of the fiscal year.

The reason: Miami-Dade messed up a single number in a newspaper advertisement in mid-September detailing its proposed taxes. As a result, the county is making plans to hold a new budget vote — public hearing and all — in the next few weeks, perhaps on Dec.4.

The numbers that commissioners relied on to vote were correct, according to the county. So were the notices mailed to taxpayers about their 2015 bills, so they won’t be sent again.

But the Florida Department of Revenue, which polices local government tax notices, found that Miami-Dade incorrectly advertised the total amount of property-tax revenue it expects to collect in 2015. That inaccuracy misled the public, according to the state, so the county must rectify its actions within 15 days. Otherwise, Florida could withhold tax revenues from Miami-Dade.

“Your taxing authority must correct these errors immediately,” the revenue department wrote Monday in a letter to the county.

Daniel Luzer is GOVERNING's news editor.
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