The $2.5 million bond proposal that Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava surprised on everyone at the State of the County address Wednesday has not been well received by everyone — especially some members of the county commission, which would need to approve any ballot measure.

Sen. Rene Garcia issued a statement late Friday that said the mayor is out of touch with residents.

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Miami-Dade County has never been better positioned. That was the message sent by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava at her fourth (and, perhaps, final) State of the County address Wednesday.

“The state of the county is strong,” Levine Cava said to a packed house at Zoo Miami after the district Commissioner Kionne McGhee and Commission Chair Oliver Gilbert warmed up the crowd. She came out to the tune of Roar, by Katy Perry.

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Happy New Year, voter! Are you ready for 2024?

If anybody thought elections in 2023 were interesting — what with corrupt Miami Mayor Francis Suarez being a pretend presidential contender for all of five minutes and incumbent losses in Coral Gables and the city of Miami — next year will likely be as good or better.

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Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Commission Chairman Oliver Gilbert and several county commissioners and staffers are in Japan on an “outbound mission” to encourage business and economic development, growth, expansion, trade, tourism and cultural exchanges.

A delegation of public officials and about 30 business leaders left Nov. 25 for the trip to visit Tokyo and Kyoto to meet with government officials and “talented Japanese business leaders” in the areas of AI, robotics, biotechnology, transit, tourism and renewable energy to exchange ideas and find opportunities

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The public will have six opportunities this week to hear details about the proposed $11 billion, 2023-24 Miami-Dade budget — which includes a proposed $36 annual garbage fee increase — beginning Wednesday in North Dade.

But will they have a chance to make any meaningful input? That is the real question. Are these just futile exercises for the sake of optics? To make it seem like a participatory process?

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The Miami-Dade Commission talked about garbage this week. Not the usual garbage. Real garbage.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has suggested a $36 annual garbage fee increase — or $3 a month — as part of her 2023-2024 $11.6 billion budget. To keep the current $509 annual fee would mean a cut in services, she said. But county commissioners, who approved her tiny. fake tax cut — a millage decrease that doesn’t actually cut anyone’s taxes — balked and deferred making any decision until Sept. 6.

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