Well, what do you know? Pushed into a corner by a majority of Miami-Dade County commissioners and an army of activists and angry residents to restore the funding cuts he proposed for transit services (bus routes and Metrorail hours), Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez suddenly found at least $16.2 million we didn’t have before.

More found money!

Okay, it’s not like, “Oh, there it is! I was wondering where I put those $16 million!” It’s not like he’s a street magician making quarters appear out of thin air. Although sometimes it seems that way, don’t it? That’s because we’ve become accustomed to Gimenez just opening a drawer full of money whenever he is forced to go look for it.  We shouldn’t be too shocked. This always happens at budget crunchtime. In fact, Ladra is only surprised it’s a measley $16 million and predicts that figure could rise as he opens more hidden drawers and trap doors on the 29th floor at County Hall. Look for good news (read: more bait and switch) at Thursday’s budget hearing.

I mean, wasn’t it a $200 million shortfall in 2014 when Gimenez first threatened to fire 700 county workers, including 255 police officers, then it was 130, then 100, then 70 and then — abracadabra — none! The money was found to save all the police jobs. Just as it was found to save the libraries the year before and stop the fire station brownouts the year before that. Was it last year he found $5 million out of the blue to fund The Underline? Or was that the year before? It all blurs togegther, which Ladra thinks is by design (and, wait, is that money parked somewhere? Or was it spent? If so, on what?).

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez’s new bait and switch — pay cuts to benefits 

This year, the bait and switch is with — what else? — transit, the obsession du jour. Gimenez and, by extension, the county budget director, Jennifer Moon, were hard pressed to find the $19 million that had been cut from the transit budget after the first budget hearing earlier this month and dozens of people spoke about the hardship this would cause transit-dependant workers. A majority of commissioners — in a rare but welcome momentary reunion with their respective spines — refused to pass the budget. Commissioner Xavier Suarez suggested dipping into the reserves to cover the transit cuts, but before that could happen, Commissioner Jean Monestime changed his vote and the budget passed 7-6. But staying with Suarez in dissent were Bruno Barreiro, Audrey Edmonson, Barbara Jordan, Daniella Levine Cava and Joe Martinez.

Some said they would vote against it again at Thursday (Sept. 28) meeting if the transit cuts were not addressed. Or even switch their vote. “Yes, for now,” said Chairman Esteban “Stevie” Bovo. I mean, how could they be taken seriously about the SMART plan and expanding mass transit if they were cutting services wholesale?

“We do have a lot of money. We just don’t allocate it properly,” Suarez said.

And, on Wednesday, the mayor proved him right.

“At the first budget hearing, the board made it clear that your priority for funding was public transportation. I share your opinion that in order to be a truly resilient community now and in the future, we must solve our mobility issues,” the mayor said, and suuuure he shares their opinion noooow.

Gimenez found $2.6 million by adding more limited holiday schedule dates to Metrorail and another $4.4 million by cancelling four bus routes that overlapped with free trolleys and municipal circulators. Really? How many years have we been wasting those $4.4 mil? He also “redirected” about $5.5 million in People’s Transportation Plan funds, just when we are supposed to start weaning ourselves off those funds (futher “redirecting” $6 million in road impact fees to replace it), and saved another unexplained $900,000 in overhead. Just like that. Snap!

And voila! You have $13 million for transit.

Read related story: Libraries saved! Carlos Gimenez performs another magic trick

In his memo to commissioners, Gimenez also laid out additional savings of at least $3.2 million he found in “additional carryover,” whatever that is, since the last budget hearing and which he has applied to the commissioners’ wishlist — including $200,000 for an additional doctor to perform spay and neuter operations at the animal shelter (which doesn’t seem like the best use of funding), $500,000 for an additional police cadet class, $340,000 to cut the grass on medians 17 times a year (current budgeting), $250,000 for canopy replacement and $270,000 for 900 more hours of tutoring at select libraries. Another $1 million was found to practically double the Hurricane Irma reserves (and the commission will be briefed at 1 p.m. on clean up and other recovery efforts).

Is anybody else at all concerned with the ease with which these monies were, once again, moved around like peas in a shell game?

“The idea that we were headed into approval of a budget and now, lo and behold, $13 million, $14 million, $15 million appear out of nowhere all of a sudden,” Suarez said in a telephone interview after Wednesday’s government operations committee meeting and you could practically see him shaking his head through the phone waves. He also said that he hopes the mayor can look a little harder and find more funds now for housing and capital projects, too.

Hopefully, the other commissioners will be as unsatisfied with this bait and switch and see it for the mismanagement and evidence of ineptitude that it truly is. Because if a reluctant and petulant mayor found $16 million in a week, how much is really padding the budget that a more motivated individual might find?

And what does this really tell us?

It tells us that there is overlap in functions and services — you think trolleys and buses are the only example of that? — which are also wasting resources we need for other things like full-time park employees and recreational programs and a civilian oversight board for police and compliance officers to investigate possible violations of the human rights ordinance.

It tells us that the mayor and administration are not reflecting the priorities of the commission — or the community — in the budget.

It tells us that we should have zero confidence in the budget that Gimenez produces and the figures he and Moon provide to the commission. After all, they both presented a Doom’s Day austere budget and said that there was no money to be found for anything else — and then, bingo, here’s $16 million.

And it tells us that former Commissioner Juan Zapata was right when he kept insisting, like forever, that the commission should have its own budget director.

Read related story: Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez saves us — from himself

“It’s the same story every year,” Zap told Ladra Wednesday. “Absolutely the county commission neeeds their own budget director and staff. I advocated and filed legislation to push for this for years. Budget staff would misinform my colleages and purposely sabotage my efforts.

“The current process allows for no checks and balances or accountability to taxpayer dollars. It’s a joke and in desperate need for reform,” Zapata said. “If the commission doesn’t take steps to bring about change, citizens should start a petition drive to place the issue on the ballot.”

Why wait? Ladra smells a passion project. And if the people at New Florida Majority or Engage Miami really want to make a permanent and significant difference, here’s something palpable.

The second and final public hearing on the mayor’s proposed $7.2 billion budget begins at 5 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 28) at County Hall, 111 NW First Street, and will be broadcast live on channel 77 and online at the county website.

Former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz is nothing if not a formidable fundraiser.

Everyone expected the Senate District 40 race to be expensive and Ladra even suggested it could be the most expensive Senate race in Florida history. We’ll have to wait until the final campaign finance reports are submitted weeks from now, but so far it looks like at least $5.5 million has been spent so far on TV and phone banks and so many mailers. Some days, there were eight pieces in our mailbox. Eight!

Maybe it will be $6 million plus by the final tally.

Is that a record? Can anyone tell me?

Diaz, a Republican golden boy who lost this heated battle in an upset against perennial loser Annette Taddeo Tuesday (51% to 47%) spent more than three times as much as the victor with a whopping $4,283,911 between his campaign account and his two PACs, Rebuild Florida and Leadership for Florida’s Future, in his bid to jump from one chamber to the next. That includes $651,694 in in-kind donations — mostly for polling, research and staff — from the Florida Republican Senatorial Committee because the GOP was just as desperate to keep the seat as the Dems were at taking it back.

And that is just as of Sept. 21, the last date on the last filed report. When the last reports are in next month, illustrating the flurry of expenses on the last five days, that number could easily be closer to $5 million.

But let’s just keep it at $4.2 mil for now. That’s $4,283,911 for a total of 20,985 votes, which comes out to $204.14 per vote. Again, so far. That number is only going to go up.

In comparison, Taddeo, spent a total of about $1,286,032 between her account and her two PACs, Fight Back Florida and the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. That also includes at least $274,213 in in-kind donations from the Florida Democratic Party for things like research and polling and campaign staff. Divided amongst the 22,649 who voted for her Tuesday, that comes out to $56.78 a vote.

Much of the spending went to the

What does this tell us? This tells us that Team Taddeo was able to do more with less and that the people on that team, which include Ashley Walker, Christian Ulvert, Carlos Odio and, I believe, Raul Martinez Jr., should be banking on the next campaign they work on. That is, if they don’t have Senate jobs by now.

It also tells us that Pepi Diaz could spend up to $200 or more per vote if/when he runs for Attorney General. He’s going to put those fundraising skills to the test.

Proving that tenacity and good old stubborn persistence can pay off, perennial candidate Annette Taddeo finally won an election Tuesday.

And against a “titan” like former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, who spent at least twice as much money (more on that later), too.

Taddeo beat Diaz by a comfortable edge, 50.95 to 47.21 percent for Diaz. The difference went to professor and independent candidate Christian “He-Man” Schlaerth, who managed to get 820 people to vote for him. But, let’s face it, he likely peeled votes from Annette so without him she would have won bigger.

Was this a referendum on Donald Trump?

Some seem to think so. The director of the local SEIU, which represents property service workers, including airport workers and janitors, said “Annette Taddeo’s victory is a stunning rebuke of the divisive politics of hate that have been embraced by many Republicans in Tallahassee and Washington.

“We’re excited that Annette will be heading to Tallahassee to fight for raising the minimum wage, good public schools, immigrant rights and equality for all Floridians,” finished Helene O’Brien.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee tweeted that Taddeo’s win was the seventh red-to-blue flip across the U.S. since November and “is just the latest example of voters rejecting Trump and the GOP’s dangerous agenda.”

People who voted for Taddeo and tweeted about it also indicated that anti-Trump sentiment was at least in the back of their minds. “Just did the thing! Hope everyone who cried about trump being elected went out and did their part,” tweeted Nick at @holywavve, including a pic of the “just voted” sticker.

And that was the idea. State Democrats were desperate to turn the seat back around after losing it to the GOP last year. They and Taddeo’s campaign made a lot of comparisons between Diaz and Trump and used the picture of them that Diaz tweeted from last year’s inaugural — and then deleted when he entered this race — on several mailers (sometimes in one day). One of them even blew up a picture of a Trump note from an old campaign contribution, before he was POTUS, wishing Pepi Diaz good luck.

Diaz, who was once Trump’s “apprentice” on the TV show by the same name, was definitely cast as a supporter and surrogate for the orange-haired commander in chief. Democrats are giddy that the Trump card is working — and you can bet we will see more of it.

Said Senate Democratic Leader-Designate Jeff Clemens: “I am thrilled to congratulate Annette Taddeo on her great victory. The Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee committed to righting a wrong in this district and electing a proven champion who will join our caucus to fight for an agenda that puts working families first.”

It was about “righting a wrong.” That refers to the win last year over longtime Sen. Dwight Bullard by former State Rep. and short-lived Sen. Frank Artiles, who was caught making racist remarks to black colleagues in a public restaurant and was forced to resign. And it gave Democrats — not just locally but across the state and even the nation — a second chance to win the seat back.

“Congratulations to Annette Taddeo on this major victory for Miami-Dade and our entire state. This is a win for all of Florida. Democrats represent 16 of 40 state Senate seats. Annette will head to Tallahassee ready to fight for higher paying jobs, affordable healthcare and fully funded public schools. Democrats across the state are energized and mobilizing to flip Florida blue. After nearly 20 years of harmful GOP policies, voters are ready for a better deal.

The Florida Democratic Party joined progressive partners like the FDLCC, unions on a community engagement effort that sets a new standard for our Party. We actively engaged both the Latino and African American communities of SD40 in neighbor-to-neighbor conversations focused on the issues that matter most. This victory is the first of many, as we are poised to claim the governorship, we are prepared to re-elect Senator Bill Nelson, and we are within striking distance of reaching parity in the upper chamber of the state legislature.

The FDP has made significant strides in building long-term political and grassroots infrastructure that will help Democrats win critical seats at the local, state, and federal level. We are organizing year-round and we will be engaging in neighbor-to-neighbor conversations in every one of our 67 counties to turn Florida blue in 2018 and beyond.”

In a statement released at 8:40 p.m., Taddeo said it was a victory for the residents of Senate District 40, who live in Westchester, Kendall and South Dade.

 “The voters wanted a champion in Tallahassee who will fight for higher paying jobs, affordable healthcare and fully funded public schools and I am honored and humbled that they have placed their faith and trust in me. I pledge to work everyday for the families of my community and not the special interests. I would like to thank my opponent for running in a hard-fought race. Our campaign saw a strong coalition come together between the FDP, the FDLCC, labor and community organizations who unified behind a winning plan. I’m beyond thankful for all the work and their efforts and the the thousands of volunteers who committed their time, energy and resources. This was a community, grassroots driven effort and I am ready to continue the work in our state capitol.”

It was also an early voting and Election Day effort. Because Pepi Diaz — who looks optimistic in this photo with poll workers at 8:30 Tuesday morning — won the absentee ballot race by nearly 2,200 votes. It must have been a terrible tease for Diaz because Taddeo later got more than twice as many votes in early voting and made up those 2,200 votes plus a few more on Tuesday.

I have to say, while I don’t love either candidate, Ladra feels a breeze of justice going through her soul because Pepi Diaz was acting like a real piece of, er, work. He was all over social media, at the podium next to the mayor, during the preparations and warnings for Hurricane Irma and afterwards, he had a TV commercial where he said “as a state rep I will be knocking on doors” to see what people needed after the storm. Seriously? He was no longer a state rep but he was sure acting like one and he sure had the access of one. Then there was that other ugly TV commrcial where David Lawrence brags about how Pepi helped 20,000 “perfectly legal” immigrant children. Ouch. Ladra sure hopes The Children’s Trust that Lawrence doesn’t check kids’ papers before helping the neediest children in our community. That’s not what I voted for.

But if Ladra feels a breeze, Taddeo must feel a hurricane of vindication. After all, she has campaigned for about a decade and has a relentless drive to be in elected office (read: watch her like a hawk). Taddeo, who also served as chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, first ran for Congress against U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 2008. She then made unsuccessful bids for county commission (2010), lieutenant governor with former Gov. Charie Christ (2014), and Congress again but this time against former Congressman Joe Garcia (2016) — maybe now they can be friends again — who lost anyway and again to U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo.

Guess the fifth time (not countying the Florida Dem chair race) is the charm.

And Ladra is fairly certain that will be the final tally, despite threats from some voter rights groups to challenge the special election after Gov. Rick Scott refused to delay it to accomodate voters inconvenienced by Hurricane Irma,

That’s because those groups — Common Cause Florida, State Voices Florida, the League of Women Voters Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Engage Miami, SAVE, LatinoJustice and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law — can arguably be lumped together under the blue umbrella. They were likely afraid that Diaz would benefit from a low turnout. How much you wanna bet there’s no challenge from them now that Taddeo has won?

Unless they challenge on behalf of Democrat Gabriela Mayaudón, who lost Tuesday in the House District 116 race to Republican Daniel Perez, for the seat vacated by Diaz when he resigned to run for Senate. But that would be ridiculous since Mayaudón is really only a Democrat on paper. Let her run a few times before you run to her defense, huh?

On the GOP side, it seems that at least Diaz — who some say is looking at the Attorney General seat — took the loss like a trooper, tweeting his kudos to Taddeo just after 10 p.m.

“Congratulations to Florida’s newest State Senator Annette Taddeo. I wish you nothing but success in your new role,” he said.

What a difference a few hours makes.

Don’t be fooled by the name, people. The Keep Government Accountable Coalition is not really a “citizens watchdog group,” as it pretends to be. It is a political action committee hiding under another name and the secrecy of a 501c3 non-profit.

That means we don’t know who is funding it. Thanks to Citizens United — whose Supreme Court lawsuit greatly loosened rules governing campaign finance, creating this “corporate personhood” ability to hide money — it’s another mysterious PAC, made even more mysterious by its non profit status.

The announcement this week says the Coalition was “formed to monitor the activities of the Miami-Dade County Commission” and report “any actions that may be detrimental to Miami-Dade taxpayers.”

Yeah, well, wouldn’t that be nice? But Ladra is way skeptical.

“The group’s formation is a response to a history of irresponsibility in Miami-Dade government that has produced years of skyrocketing property taxes and insurance rates and millions of wasted tax dollars,” reads the press release put out by a Tallahassee Media and PR firm that runs many Republican campaigns. “It also intends to serve as a check on increasing toll rates and plans to exert pressure on the Commission to address continued traffic congestion and a lack of needed infrastructure improvements. The group’s founders say it is imperative that local elected officials be held to a higher standard going forward in order to protect and promote a higher quality of life in Miami-Dade County.”

The statement also quotes Coalition Chairman Frank De Varona, a Bay of Pigs veteran and college professor who is also a Republican activist: “Elected officials should be  faithful stewards of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and we will not settle for anything less than that. Miami-Dade taxpayers can count on us to watch the County Commission like a hawk, and we will be quick to draw attention to any move that squanders public resources.”

How Ladra wishes that were true. More likely, it was formed to push something or someone.

Something? The announcement talks about traffic congestion and comes on the heels of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez saying — now that he’s not running for office any more — that he was giving up on trains. This could be to create messaging and a “narratie” in the community either for the rapid buses that Gimenez wants us to believe are better or to push for trains.

Someone? This could be an attempt to set someone up to run in 2018 for one of the county commission seats, or tear down one of the incumbents. Ladra’s money would be on Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava.

The creation of this coalition also comes on the heels of a new website and Facebook page, Keeping up with Cava, that criticizes the commissioner, who admittedly has let many voters down and could be vulnerable (more on that later). Ladra thinks she is more vulnerable to another Democrat, but the Dems won’t support anyone else and, even though this is a partisan race, this Coalition group seems Republican and Ladra will bet her kibble that it aims to put a Republican in that District 8 seat. The other two incumbents, Commissioners Jean Monestime and Sally Heyman, are less vulnerable and in districts where a Republian will never win.

And this coalition seems heavily read. It was formed Tuesday with the help of former State Rep. and attorney to GOP politicians J.C. Planas. It was announced Wednesday by the Tallahassee-based firm, Front Line Strategies, which belongs to Republican political consultant Brett Doster (photographed right), who just lost the State House 116 race where he was running Jose Mallea (local candidates really need to stop looking to Tallahassee for anything other than money). And there is the Republican activist chairman.

While county commission races are non-partisan, both parties have been getting more and more involved. This “coalition” might be preparing to run a Republican against Levine Cava. Ladra doesn’t know who that is. Yet.

Could it be Mallea? He’s got some good name recognition having gotten 45% of the vote for a House seat that overlaps some. Could it be a state rep whose term is up next year? Does Michael Bileca live there or in commission District 7? Could it be former and disgraced Sen. Frank Artiles, who had to resign after making racist remarks, and who Ladra heard has moved back into his old Palmetto Bay home? Yeah, that’s almost as ludicrous as reincarnating former Commissioner Lynda Bell, who lost to Levine Cava in 2014.

But this is the 305, where special interests can disguise themselves as watchdog groups and call it a coalition. Anything is possible.

Two days after he crushed it in the GOP primary for the Senate Distrit 40 seat, former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz is getting a head start on the general campaign with a mailer that calls him a “tax cutter” and a committment of $100K from fellow Republicans.

The mailer arrived Thursday addressed to Ladra’s “family,” which include a Republican, a Democrat and an NPA who plan to vote Sept. 26. It didn’t come to the Republican. It didn’t go to the Independent. It came to the family. We imagine it was sent to both Republicans and NPAs, which could decide this election.

The district is about a third Dem, a third GOP and a third NPA. That means that the NPAs are going to be heavily courted in the general. They even have their own candidate in the race, sociology professor Christian “He-Man” Schlaerth.

Read related story: Democrats start to hit Jose Felix Diaz — before the GOP primary is over

Independents already recieved mail, during the primary, against Diaz from the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which sent at least three mailers casting Diaz as a lobbyist looking out for special interests. No wonder the Diaz campaign came back trying to define him early on as a “tax cutter.”

Or, actually, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which paid for this mailer, which is pretty much a tit for tat, hurry-up-and-let’s-define-our-guy-before-they-do piece: “Vote for the tax cutter Jose Felix Diaz September 26th.”

It’s a tremendous reach.

It gives Diaz credit for creating the tax holidays for school supplies and storm supplies, although that was part of a package that he voted on as a member of the House. It also says he voted to put the additional $25,000 homestead exemption to voters next November, a move that many say was calculated by the Republican leadership to drum up turnout in a mid-year election. A move that cities and counties are dreading will leave them with less funds to pay for things like police and paramedics and buses and road maintenance.

One has to believe that the FRSCC — the fundraising arm for Senate Republican leaders, controlled by future Senate presidents Bill Galvano and Wilton Simpson — will be more creative and more forthright with more time. The turnout for this election is going to be the super voter. Also called the “high quality” voter. That means the educated voter. They aren’t going to buy this lazy crap.

And hasn’t anyone told them not to put open scissors on a positive piece with their candidate’s name on it? Campaign 101.

Read related story: Winners and losers in special election for SD 40 and HD116

The campaign committee just announced a $100,000 donation from the Republican State Leadership Committee, an organization of Republican state officials intent on keeping this seat red, and they would do well to use the money more wisely on messages that will connect with the super voters instead of this dribble.

The Senate District 40 seat had been Democrat for decades before Frank Artiles beat former Sen. Dwight Bullard in an ugly race last year that was marked by negative ads that cast Bullard as a terrorist sympathizer. Artiles was forced to resign in April after he was caught making racist remarks to black legislators at a Tallahassee eatery one night.

Diaz, who was heavily endorsed by his BFF and former Tallahasee roommate Artiles (they are photographed at the beginning of session here), won the GOP primary on Tuesday and will face Democrat Annette Taddeo in September.

And if this mailer is any indication, it’s gonna be a busy couple of months.