l******a
发帖数: 3803 | 1 涨地产税，县公务员涨薪，同时搞！
老百姓终于怒了！
Voters in Miami-Dade deciding on mayoral recall drive amid anger over
property tax, pay raises
MIAMI — Mayor Carlos Alvarez could be recalled from office Tuesday after a
campaign led by a billionaire car dealer mobilized thousands of voters angry
over property tax increases and a simultaneous raise for county employees.
If successful, it would be the largest recall of a local official in U.S.
history.
FILE-In a Feb. 8, 2011 file photo, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez attends
ground breaking ceremonies in Miami, for the new Children’s Courthouse.
Braman has led the campaign to oust Mayor Carlos Alvarez in his second term
after a property tax increase and pay raises for many county employees. (AP
Photo/J Pat Carter, File)
The recall effort, led by billionaire Norman Braman, comes as the county
struggles to recover from the recession, with unemployment in January at 12
percent and a foreclosure rate that has been one of the nation’s highest.
Nearly 59,000 voters have already cast early ballots and about another
68,000 filed by absentee in the weeks leading up to the polls opening
Tuesday.
Francisco Rodriguez, 58, a bus driver, said his property taxes increased by
about $600 this year, leading him to cancel his health insurance. He said
voted to remove Alvarez.
“It’s time for him to go,” Rodriguez said. “We want a change.”
Alvarez is in the third year of his second four-year term. If he is
recalled, the county commission would schedule a special election to fill
the remainder of his term.
There have been numerous recalls of state officials in recent years, but not
any of a local government official in a metropolitan area as big as Miami-
Dade County, which has 2.5 million residents, said Joshua Spivak, a recall
expert and senior fellow at Wagner College in New York. The Los Angeles
mayor was recalled in 1938, but Spivak said the population at that time was
smaller.
Alvarez, a former county police chief, has said he has no regrets over his
recommended budget, and that it was necessary in order to maintain vital
services like fire and police. He also says Braman is angry over losing an
effort to block the county from funding a new $600 million stadium for the
Florida Marlins baseball team.
At Alvarez’s urging, the county commission approved it.
“The defining issue really is the type of government that the citizens of
this community are looking for,” Braman said. “It’s about empowering the
people of this community to take it back from the politicians who have been
running it, and running it in a way that I think endangers the fiscal future
of our community.”
A recent poll by firm Bendixen & Amandi, in partnership with The Miami
Herald, found that 67 percent of likely voters planned to recall Alvarez
from office. Only 18 percent said he should stay in office.
Fernand Amandi, the firm’s managing partner, said disenchantment with the
county government and elected officials has been accentuated by the poor
economic environment.
“This has been building,” Amandi said.
Braman, a former Philadelphia Eagles owner, gathered twice the 51,000
signatures needed to recall the mayor. County Commissioner Natacha Seijas is
also on the recall ballot.
Voters were trickling into polling sites on Tuesday morning. At one site
downtown, volunteers awaited voters, but just six had showed up within the
first four hours of voting.
Yolanda Soler, 47, said she voted to recall the mayor.
“I think it’s important that politicians know when the people are not with
them,” she said. “What he did didn’t make any fiscal sense. I’m
disappointed
because I did trust him to do a better job.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
|
