Miami-Dade might skim a little off the top of contracts — for the nonprofits

Just when you thought the dust had settled from Miami-Dade’s budget meltdown over nonprofit funding, the county commission is getting ready to cook up a permanent fix — and it’s one that could quietly take a bite out of every county contract.
Ladra’s calling it the CBO skim.
Thursday, the county’s appropriations committee will take up a new ordinance that would create a Community-Based Organization Trust Fund, a special pot of money meant to stabilize funding for nonprofits that provide human and social services — the same groups that got a last-minute $40 million reprieve during September’s hand-wringing budget circus.
It sounds noble. It’s being sold as a way to protect the safety net from political gamesmanship. But like so many things in county government, it’s not all that easy.
This conversation is about trust. And after the A3 Foundation fiasco, where The Miami Herald discovered the county was paying millions to a ghost non-profit with nothing to show in return — they’re gonna need a lot of it.
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Under the plan, 2% of every eligible county contract — for goods, services, even construction — would be deducted and dropped into the new rainy-day fund. That means vendors doing business with Miami-Dade would get a 2% haircut on each invoice, the money quietly rerouted to help “the community.”
Who decides which nonprofits get the help? The same county commission, of course — or the mayor’s office, if the board delegates the power. But Ladra will bet that doesn’t happen.
Leading the charge are three commissioners who know the nonprofit world better than most: Kionne McGhee, Rene Garcia, and Marlene Bastien have sponsored the ordinance.
McGhee, the vice chair and former state lawmaker, runs his district like a social lab of pilot programs and small-business grants. He is also an employee of Children of Inmates, a charity that aims to keep adults in prison connected with their kids while they serve their sentences. Children of Inmates was poised to get $250,000 in 2026 from Miami-Dade County — just enough, maybe, to cover his salary and benefits. McGhee was also the loudest voice on the commission to restore non-profit funding and had his own budget town hall for the community based organizations.
Garcia, the Republican from Hialeah, has chaired more health and social service boards than some Democrats. He founded the resource referral non-profit H.O.P.E. Mission, and has his best friend serving as president.
And Bastien? She is the nonprofit world — founder of FANM, the Family Action Network Movement, and tireless champion for every social cause from affordable housing to immigration. She recently convinced the county to earlier this year to give away a county-owned property at 100 NE 84th Street to the non-profit she founded in 1991.
Read related:Miami-Dade considers giving property away to Marleine Bastien’s non-profit
So, yes, the CBO Trust Fund has plenty of heart. But it also has fingerprints all over it.
It sounds like a good idea: The measure would create a permanent, interest-bearing county fund dedicated solely to nonprofit grants. The 2% “CBO Deduction” would come out of county contracts — just like the User Access Program fee, which vendors have long called a hidden tax. It deducts 2% of all vendors through the procurement department to “defray procurement costs.”
There are exemptions to the proposed CBO deduction (read: loopholes), of course:

Small construction contracts under $500,000
Professional services and design contracts
Federally funded deals where the feds say no
Revenue-generating contracts
And anything the commission votes to waive by a two-thirds majority

The Mayor’s office would oversee the logistics and file an annual report on how much the fund collected and where it went.
Contractors are not going to love this.
Many of them already grumble about the User Access Program. Now they’ll see another 2% dip — one they’ll likely bake right back into their bid prices. So taxpayers might end up footing the bill anyway.
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Fiscal hawks will call it a backdoor tax. Procurement nerds will call it a nightmare. And some watchdogs (woof!) will say it’s a slush fund in the making, with commissioners picking winners and losers among nonprofits.
But for the hundreds of local groups that live and die by county grants every year, this is seen as nothing short of a lifeline — a chance to stop begging every budget season for money to keep their doors open. Expect them to show up en masse to encourage the passage of this measure.
Likewise, lobbyists and contractors will be urging commissioners to vote no. Because 2% of $9 billion dollars — the price tag put on the whole modernization of Miami International Airport — is $180 million.
It’s hard not to see this as a political insurance policy after the budget fiasco that nearly gutted Miami-Dade’s social service network. The commission doesn’t want to go through that again, with seniors and kids and domestic violence advocates showing up to protest.
So they’re setting up a rainy-day fund for nonprofits, paid for by taxpayers anyway because vendors will pass it along. The optics are interesting: three commissioners with deep ties to nonprofit circles creating a fund that could, one day, feed those same circles.
That doesn’t make it wrong — but it sure makes it worth watching.
If this passes committee, it’ll head to the full commission for approval, and you can bet Ladra will be looking to see who lines up for (maybe Keon Hardemon, Oliver Gilbert) or against it (Rob Gonzalez?). Because whether you call it a Trust Fund or a “Trust Us Fund,” this little ordinance could quietly change how social service money flows in Miami-Dade for years to come.
The appropriations committee begins at 11 a.m. Thursday Nov. 13 in commission chambers at County Hall, 111 Northwest First Street, and can be seen live on the county’s YouTube channel and online on their website.

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