By Jose Navarro, MBA | The Navarro Report
September 2026
MIAMI. On November 3, City of Miami voters will be asked to approve $450 million in borrowing for a new public safety headquarters, seven new fire stations, and repairs to existing police and fire buildings. That is the headline number. The city’s own estimate of what taxpayers would repay is $795 million, and no forecast yet includes the operating costs.
Start with the need, because it is real. Mayor Eileen Higgins told commissioners that the conditions in these buildings “are not cosmetic problems. These are operational failures that are waiting to be a disaster.” Fire Chief Robert Hevia noted that arriving within eight minutes doubles a patient’s chance of survival. Commissioner Christine King, who voted against sending the bond to the ballot, put it fairly: “No one up here is against having our fire stations and police headquarters addressed.”
The question is price and process, not purpose. According to written answers released on June 18 by City Manager James Reyes to questions from Commissioner Rolando Escalona, the bond would cost about $795 million once principal, interest, and issuance costs are counted. That is roughly $345 million above the amount borrowed. The city estimates the annual cost at about $131 for the owner of an average home valued at $423,020. The same document contains the admission that matters most to a controller. Staffing and operating costs for the new facilities have “not to date” been incorporated into the city’s long-term budget forecast.
That means voters may approve construction before anyone has priced the buildings’ upkeep, their staffing, and their utilities. A headquarters is not a one-time purchase. It is a permanent line in the operating budget, and the operating budget is where Miami is most exposed. Roughly 76 percent of it goes to personnel, according to WLRN’s coverage of the September budget hearing. Property taxes supply more than half of it. The commission adopted a $3.7 billion budget on September 24 and held the millage rate at 7.36, but WLRN framed the talks as the most uncertain time in the city’s financial history, with a statewide property tax amendment on the same ballot.
The commission deserves credit for the safeguards it added. In a 3 to 2 vote on July 9, it required proceeds from selling the current downtown police headquarters to reduce the bond debt, and it required state and federal capital grants to reduce borrowing. It also created a mechanism for developer community-benefit contributions and set aside $10 million this fiscal year for urgent repairs. Those are pragmatic steps, and they should be applied exactly as written.
Commissioner King said of the timeline, “You don’t contemplate $450 million in two months.”
I have spent more than two decades as a financial controller, and I have seen how this sequence ends. A capital project is approved on the strength of its construction number. The operating cost arrives later, as an unfunded obligation that crowds out something else. Voters deserve the full number before they vote, not afterward.
Three reforms are feasible before the next Miami bond, and the first two could be applied to this one.
First, print the total cost of borrowing in the official voter materials, beside the amount borrowed. If the city’s own estimate is $795 million, the public should see $795 million, along with the annual household cost.
Second, adopt an explicit operating cost forecast before any bonds are sold. It should cover staffing, maintenance, and utilities for every new facility over the life of the debt, and it should be published for the commission and the public. If the city cannot afford the operating costs, voters should know that before construction begins.
Third, require an annual public report showing spending against the approved scope, including how much sale proceeds and grants reduced borrowing. Miami has a track record to learn from. The 2018 Miami Forever Bond of $400 million shows how slowly accountability arrives: WLRN reported that 35 of 56 affordable housing projects were complete, with 20 more expected by December 2027. A yearly dashboard would let voters check promises against results much sooner, and much more fairly.
The strongest objection is that fire stations cannot wait for a perfect forecast, and that delay has its own cost in response times. That is plausible, and it is why the reforms above are cheap and fast. A cost statement and a forecast can be produced in weeks. They do not stop a single fire station from being built.
I no longer live in Miami. I grew up in Little Havana, and I still read its budgets the way I would read any client’s: line by line. Miami’s firefighters and police officers deserve modern buildings. Miami’s taxpayers deserve to know what those buildings will cost before they vote to build them.
Sources
Coconut Grove Spotlight, Commission sends $450 million public safety bond to November ballot
Miami Today, $450 million Miami public safety bond returning for action
WLRN, Flock cameras, high salaries and trash pickup: highlights from Miami’s first budget hearing
Local10, Miami commissioners pass new $3.7B budget, keep 7.36 millage rate
Jose E. Navarro, MBA, is a financial controller and founder of The Navarro Report, a public finance and government accountability publication based in San Diego, California. He grew up in Little Havana and graduated from Miami Jackson Senior High School.
Contact: jose@navarro-report.com | 850-291-3175