MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

By Douglas Hanks

As budget challenges grow, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Thursday night launched a new efficiency effort to promote cost cutting and streamlining in a county government that spends nearly $13 billion a year.

“My administration has doubled down on a promise to invest your tax dollars wisely,” the two-term mayor said during her fifth State of the County address since the Democrat won the nonpartisan office in 2020. “Every policy championed, every program established, every real estate deal pursued and every contract proposal should get the highest return.”

Speaking before an audience at the Miami Senior High auditorium in Little Havana, Levine Cava said the new “WISE 305” effort would have the county investing in automation to save dollars, encouraging employees to flag outdated or cumbersome rules and procedures, and looking for ways to consolidate existing government agencies — like her recent proposed merger of the county’s Internal Services and Human Resources departments.

“WISE 305 is my promise that we’re working even harder so that our best days are ahead and that we maximize every dollar,” Levine Cava said during the evening speech, parts of it delivered in Spanish and in Creole.

Because of changes in state law, she took the auditorium stage as a weaker mayor than she did a year ago for her State of the County address at the county’s Zoo Miami.

In 2024, the zoo parking lot was peppered with county police cars under her command as the only mayor in Florida who also held the powers of sheriff. That ended Jan. 7 when Miami-Dade’s first sheriff since the 1960s, Rosie Cordero-Stutz, took office under a statewide constitutional change requiring elected sheriffs in every county. The constitutional amendment also stripped Levine Cava of her previous power as head of elections for Miami-Dade and the chief financial steward of the county — authority now held by an independent elections supervisor, tax collector and comptroller.

A year ago, Levine Cava was cruising for an easy reelection against poorly funded Republican challengers, with talk of her running for governor in 2026 as a Democrat with bipartisan appeal from a county that’s voted blue in every presidential election since the 1990s.

On Thursday, she instead addressed the audience as the Democratic mayor of a county that President Donald Trump won by 11 points, and one where a slate of Republican countywide elected officials swept their races, including Sheriff Cordero-Stutz.

Facing a new right-leaning political landscape in county government, Levine Cava told the crowd that Miami-Dade won’t be defined by party divisions.

“When all around the world we see division and hyper partisanship, here we have shown that we can build bridges and we can reach consensus,” said Levine Cava, who worked as a child-welfare lawyer and nonprofit leader before winning a County Commission seat in 2014. “I believe you can take care of business and drive real results, while still leading with compassion, kindness and collaboration.”

In a memo last week to commissioners, Levine Cava described “a time of mounting pressure on our County’s overall budget,” which she linked partly to the higher expenses tied to the newly independent county offices. Earlier this month, Cordero-Stutz asked commissioners for an additional $50 million over what was approved in the $12.7 billion countywide budget the board approved in September.

Levine Cava’s early years in office were flush with federal COVID dollars, and now growth is slowing in property values. The combination has Levine Cava and others warning of a tougher budget ahead as the mayor prepares to unveil her 2026 spending proposal in July.

Levine Cava didn’t solely focus on cost cutting in her speech, pledging to continue efforts to boost affordable housing, expand transit and invest in protecting the environment. But the WISE 305 program was what her media office highlighted in the first press release promoting the speech.

While mostly reading from prepared remarks, Levine Cava departed from the script early on when a granddaughter in the front row began crying about four minutes into the mayor’s speech.

“I think she wants to come up here with me,” the mayor said to laughter as her son headed for the exit with the infant. Levine Cava told the audience her State of the County address fell on what would have been the 91st birthday of her mother, Lois Levine, who died in December. “She was the one who taught me compassion, peacemaking and reverence,” she said. “I’m especially reminded of her in all the work we do to find compromise and common ground and rise above — not despite our differences — but because of our connectedness.”

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article299366324.html#storylink=cpy