MIRAMAR, Fla. – The impact of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic is now reaching local governments here in South Florida.
The City of Miramar has become the first to announce furloughs to manage the financial fallout of COVID-19.
Included in those cuts are police and fire, which could impact public safety.
More than 1,200 people are employed by the City of Miramar, from clerks to custodial staff at City Hall, to roughly 150 firefighters and another 200-plus police officers.
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“…each employee will be furloughed for 8 hours each week from June 11th to December 9th!”
…The city cites a projected loss of about $23 million in the fiscal year’s budget because of a hit in general taxes and other intergovernmental revenues,
Coronavirus in Florida: City of Miramar to furlough employees, including first responders
Miramar is in Broward county, right next the county like with Dade. I am amazed that cities in Miami Dade survived the shave, my guess is the lack of school. The counties simply cannot afford the lack of income for the Pandemic paranoia anymore or risk have a total collapse of order.
The last thought that came to me was that if Scott Israel was still the Sheriff of Broward, he would be at the Miramar Government building first thing in the morning offering the “much cheaper services” of his agency and telling the Mayor to disband his force and his fire department .
Normal practice of politicians everywhere, when budgets aren’t increased quite as much as they want, is to cut personnel starting with the MOST critical people. Worthless overhead parasites are always protected, but firemen and police are laid off right away. It’s merely a scam intended to punish the uppity subjects for having the nerve to want to keep some of their hard-earned money.
The reasons for the budget shortfall may be different in this case, but the reaction is standard statist playbook.
Waiting for the Mayor to cut admin staff, consolidate police precincts to reduce senior officers or put more officers on the street, defer purchases of expensive capital equipment, etc, but not holding my breath.