Mayor's Budget Message
Fellow Residents and Honorable Commissioners:
First, let me thank the City of Miami residents and the best municipal workforce a Mayor could ever hope for. Your hard work and unwavering dedication to our community is what allows us to present this Proposed Operating Budget and Multi-Year Capital Plan for the fiscal year 2024-25.
Our pledge to build a “Miami for Everyone” means that we are constantly improving our government to address residents’ needs more boldly and effectively than ever before. We seek to maintain the City’s strong financial footing while strategically using that growth to reinvest in our residents’ current and future prosperity.
We have stayed true to that vision while also achieving two notable milestones, namely cutting taxes to historic lows, and concluding agreements that protect our deeply valued workforce.
Property taxes are the lowest they have been in 59 years and — just as we vowed to do in my State of the City address — we ratified contracts with all four of our City’s labor unions.
This budget commits to strengthening the ways we regularly serve our residents: maintaining clean and safe communities, including emergency response on land and water; providing financial savings and educational programs for residents to seize opportunities; supporting housing, childcare and quality of life services, both yearlong and seasonal; and continuing subsidies for our youngest, eldest, and most vulnerable residents so that they can live with dignity.
As one of the nation’s fastest growing cities, we recognize that business formation, (re)location, and investment here empowers us to better serve our residents. This budget seeks to realize our promise to modernize our government and to be more responsive to the extensive needs of these essential businesses. We want to preserve Miami’s status as a place that exceeds the expectations of our residents, both new and old, employers, tourists, event sponsors, and economic development stakeholders.
As shown by our track record, we are delivering — and will continue to deliver — on all of our commitments while maintaining strict fiscal restraint, meeting our debt obligations, and preparing for the future. This plan’s intense dedication to delivering the most to our residents while also using those funds as frugally as possible makes it a budget that we can all get behind to build a Miami that is truly For Everyone.
No other major city in the United States can claim the same degree of success our Magic City has enjoyed in these past years. Let us ensure that our gains continue to fuel the success of everyday Miamians, whose hard work and ambitions built our proud city.
Sincerely,
Francis X. Suarez
Mayor of Miami