Inside the Beltway readers are informing us that several Hill staffers are taking great interest and are following events closely regarding the fiscal fiasco taking place in Miami-Dade County government, specifically with the misappropriation of federal funds.
Heightened interest has been placed on recent news reports of the Federal Transit Administration ceasing their audit of the Miami-Dade Transit Agency earlier this month, and the total arrogance displayed by County bureaucrats in their dismissal of federal concerns.
Staffers for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, chaired by Floridian John Mica, and the House Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Hal Rogers of Kentucky, are starting to recommend measures ranging from a forensic audit to a full blown takeover (as was done with Miami-Dade Public Housing Agency), all with the objective of preventing further abuse and waste of taxpayer dollars.
One email to us read "[p]eople are pissed off at the hubris and business as usual attitude from the County and are looking at ways to teach them a lesson."
At a time when federal funding is at a premium, and communities across the country are facing cuts in infrastructure and other funding, the County's approach has sent a message that they don't care about the freeze in federal funding, leading several Beltway insiders to question the seriousness and professionalism of County administrators.
County leaders would do well to implement accountability measures to repair their precarious relationship with the federal government and start to act seriously in how they spend federal monies, or risk further embarrassment and a possible freeze and/or denial of pending and ongoing requests for federal funds.
