Word: miami
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...many things public officials probably shouldn't do during a severe recession, but no one seems to have told the leaders in Florida about them. One thing, for instance, would be giving a dozen top aides hefty raises while urging a rise in property taxes, as the mayor of Miami-Dade County recently did. Or jacking up already exorbitant hurricane-insurance premiums, as Florida's government-run property insurer just did. Or sending an army of highly paid lobbyists to push for a steep hike in electricity rates, as South Florida's public utility is doing...
...years ago, journalists - citing the chasm between Miami's high cost of living and its low level of income - began predicting that South Florida and its perpetual population-growth machine would soon face the unthinkable: a falling head count. Now it's official. The region - Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties - lost 27,400 residents between 2008 and 2009, while Florida as a whole lost 58,000. That's not exactly a mass exodus for a state of 18 million; but it's the first net outflow in 63 years for a state that considers itself the new California...
...Jones gets it, but residents are starting to question whether the rest of their leaders do. Homeowners, especially in Broward and Miami-Dade, have been falling out of their flip-flops in recent days as they open their preliminary property-tax notices to find increases of 15% or more. That's sizable in a low-income region where the median property-tax bill is already some $3,000, and it's doubly frustrating given that property values have slid by some 25% during Florida's housing bust. Residents have barely digested the recent news that their hurricane-insurance premiums, which...
...nursing and medical care would allow consumers to pay extra for premium services and thus stimulate domestic demand. While public health insurance is necessary, economists say that high-quality private hospitals and clinics that charge more could hire more doctors. "Why don't localities try to become the Miami, Fla., or Arizona of Japan? Because of regulation," says Curtis. It is, after all, the land of the rising sun. And all eyes are now focused on how the new administration will deal with what looms on the horizon...
...Williams, who is running for U.S. Congress next year, says the banks still need a push. In an editorial last week, the Miami Herald also broached the subject, saying that if lenders "do not step up their efforts to help stressed-out homeowners," then Congress should consider a "change in federal law that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the principal owned on home mortgages." In other words, if Williams can't get his law passed in his hometown, perhaps he'll have better luck later if he wins a seat on Capitol Hill...