Hialeah budget impasse: 1% vs 10% and the ghost of Mayor Carlos Hernández

Hialeah’s first budget hearing for 2025-26 last week turned into another political telenovela, with interim Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves and Councilman Jesús Tundidor digging into their rival tax-cut proposals like two kids fighting over the last croqueta. And since the council is still missing a seventh member to break ties, nothing got done Thursday. Nada.
The meeting will be reconvened Monday evening to continue. Maybe this time they can vote on something.
Read related: Dueling tax cut proposals in Hialeah means campaign season is in full gear
Garcia-Roves, who wants to keep the mayor’s chair in November, floated a 1% cut to the millage rate. That would save the average homeowner about $11 a year and businesses about $248. Ladra has seen bigger discounts in a clearance bin at Sedano’s. Still, the city’s first female mayor — although interim — is also promising more: she wants the city to eat the $12.5 million in water and sewer fee hikes from the county, drop the $3.7 million franchise fee for electrical service, and cover an $852,000 bump in garbage fees.
Add it up, and the average homeowner could save about $306 a year under the interim alcaldesa‘s plan.
Tundidor — who just so happens to also be running for mayor — thinks that’s crumbs. He wants a 10% cut in the millage rate, which would mean $200 or more in savings.
But his plan would blow a $13 million hole in the budget. Hialeah’s finance director called it unaffordable, warning it could mean pink slips for 88 firefighters or 63 cops. Tundidor waved that away, insisting the money could come from Public Works reserves, which city officials say can’t legally be used. But hey, what’s a law or two in Hialeah?
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
The last time Hialeah played tax-cut roulette was under Mayor Carlos Hernández in 2013. He handed residents a 1% break and left the city $3.2 million short. The fallout? Furloughs, pay cuts, padlocked parks, shuttered pools, pension hits, and the exodus of more than a hundred cops and firefighters. A decade later, the City of Progress is still fixing roofs and relighting parks from that mess.
Hernandez is reportedly backing Garcia-Roves (so are former mayors Esteban “Steve” Bovo and Julio Robaina)
Read related: Three former Hialeah mayors ‘host’ quiet fundraiser for Jackie Garcia-Roves
Firefighters Union President Eric Johnson wanted the council that this is déjà vu. “We are here today because of bad governance in the past,” said Johnson, who later told Political Cortadito he had no intention of speaking, but couldn’t help himself.
“Continuing to do the same things and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.”
Meanwhile, council members bickered like it was a campaign debate. With five council seats and the mayor’s race all on the ballot this year, nobody wants to be the bad guy raising taxes — or the fool cutting too deep. And with Hialeah still basking in its Trump-Ave. glow, the pressure is on to prove Republican leaders can hand out relief like Democrats promise freebies.
The first budget hearing will continue at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 501 Palm Ave., and can also be seen on the city’s YouTube page.
A second public budge hearing is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 25. The city has until Sept. 30 to pass something or it reverts to last year’s budget. Which, knowing Hialeah, might be exactly what happens.

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