A fair water flow: Justice for Miami Gardens ratepayers
The city of North Miami Beach runs its own public water utility whose sole water treatment plant is in the city of Miami Gardens and relies on the water coming from beneath the city of Miami Gardens.
For as long as Miami Gardens has been a city, North Miami Beach has taken the water, treated it in Miami Gardens, imposed a 25% surcharge and sold it right back to the residents and businesses of Miami Gardens, which I represent on the Miami-Dade County Commission.
This water feud by the neighboring cities has been going on for a decade, with both sides having a different take on the reason for the surcharge. I have been fighting on the side of Miami Gardens since I was a council member in the city and then its mayor.
When first established in the late 1990s, the surcharge was intended to provide a way for cities to pay for infrastructure when they had to extend water service to another city. However, North Miami Beach never extended the infrastructure to Miami Gardens; the infrastructure was already there. The surcharge was not meant to help one city get rich off of another.
For years, we have heard from North Miami Beach that the funds generated from the 25% surcharge support the operations, maintenance and capital plan of the water utility.
As noted in North Miami Beach's bond documents, the surcharge is imposed by North Miami Beach and placed directly into the North Miami Beach general fund.
The surcharge, paid by ratepayers in Miami Gardens, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Golden Beach and portions of unincorporated Miami-Dade, is then used by North Miami Beach to pay for services that only benefit the residents of North Miami Beach.
The North Miami Beach Commission is building out their city on the backs of residents who will never be able to vote for or against them. That is the literal definition of taxation without representation.
Florida Senate Bill 202 aims to end this practice by requiring North Miami Beach to charge the residents of Miami Gardens the same rates and fees they charge their own residents. The companion, House Bill 11, was already unanimously passed.
For years, opponents of this legislation have tried to delay the removal of the surcharge. This year's opposition is based around the notion that removing the surcharge may lead to increases in water rates to other customers. Implying that removing the surcharge from Miami Gardens customers would increase water rates is simply not true. We now know that eliminating the surcharge does not have to affect the water rate.
From North Miami Beach's public bond documents, we know that the funds generated from the 25% surcharge are not a part of the water utility's gross revenues. Those funds are a part of their general fund. The rates and fees currently imposed by North Miami Beach without the surcharge applied cover the costs of all related expenses for the water utility.
As a direct result, the $9 million settlement that North Miami Beach must pay Miami Gardens customers for illegally imposing the surcharge when the utility was privately operated is coming out of the North Miami Beach general fund and not the water utility service.
We have been fighting to right this wrong for a long time. Over the last month, I have met with Senate leadership, the speaker of the House and legislators from across the state to ask for their support.
State Sen. Shevrin Jones and Rep. Felicia Robinson have done an extraordinary job in advocating for their bills. SB 202 and HB 11 are closer than ever to becoming law and I trust that the Legislature and the governor will ensure that the North Miami Beach's water customers in Miami Gardens are no longer unjustly taxed for the right to clean drinking water that comes from their own backyard.
Oliver G. Gilbert, III is a Miami-Dade commissioner and a former mayor of Miami Gardens.
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