WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017
TODAY’S NEWS
MIAMI TODAY
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County minimum wage rule may double state’s The county voted to grant Hard Rock Stadium owners bonuses for big events to avoid paying for upgrade.
County may defer bonus payments to Dolphins owner for major events Miami-Dade County wants to defer bonus payments to the owners of the Miami Dolphins for holding major events at Hard Rock Stadium until the end of 2025 in order to have time to build up a shortfall reserve. That means that the bonus award for the hosting of Super Bowl LIV (54) on Feb. 2, 2020, ending a string of rejections for the game because the stadium was not up to par for the National Football League, would be paid almost six years after the game was held. The legislation now in county hall that would delay the payments to team and stadium owners says the one-time delay would permit the county to build up a Convention Development Tax shortfall reserve toward its $45 million target. The county would not have to pay interest on the delayed funds. The delay is permitted in the agreement that got the stadium renovated at owners’, not taxpayers’, expense in return for the bonus plan. The first event eligible for the bonus payments was the soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona at the stadium this past July 29 in a game known as “El Clásico,” which was attended by 67,000 fans. The bonus payments are intended to incentivize the stadium owners to host major touristgenerating sporting events. The agreement aimed also to ensure that the Dolphins spend at least 30 years more in Miami. Deferring its checks would not create a situation in which the county would have to make lump sum payments to the stadium, according to Deputy Mayor Edward Marquez. Payments, he said, would come in the order in which they were earned, capped at $5 million a year and $30 million for the entire deferral period. The Super Bowl game at the renovated stadium in Miami Gardens, the first one here since 2010, will be a record 11th to be staged in South Florida, breaking a tie with New Orleans. Principal Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, a New York real estate developer, reportedly invested more than $450 million in the stadium overhaul. County commissioners in June 2014 approved Mayor Carlos Giménez’s plan for the bonus payments in exchange for Mr. Ross being financially responsible for the renovation of the stadium without county assistance. Commissioner Barbara Jordan, who sponsored the resolution in 2014 that approved the agreement, is the sponsor of the legislation seeing to defer payments of the
performance bonus until Dec. 31, 2025. The new deal, under what was termed a performance-based marquee event grant agreement, lasts for 20 years. Its key points include: Stadium owners were to finance and construct the stadium improvements. The stadium owners now earn performance-based marquee event grants for hosting a Super Bowl or World Cup final, a $4 million county payout; college football championship or World Cup soccer match, $3 million; college football semifinal, $2 million; and international soccer, $750,000. Under the agreement, owners can get credit for no more than two international soccer events, other than World Cup matches, per year. Grant payments can only be made from the county’s portion of available Convention Development Tax funds. The county is not obligated to make such payments
until Dec. 31, 2024, though it can pay early. Each year of the grant agreement has an earning and payment cap of $5 million no matter how many marquee events have been hosted. In the event Convention Development Tax funds aren’t available to fund the earned grants, the amount owed will be rolled over and be eligible for payment in future years under a payment cap of $5 million per year. Prior to 2024, the stadium owners may not earn more than a total of $30 million in these grants. The county may set aside additional operating funds from the Convention Development Tax for the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Science Museum, and the cultural facilities the county operates prior to making the grant payments to stadium owners. The county has an obligation to pay unfunded amounts existing at the end of the agreement term.
County service contractors would be required to raise their employees’ minimum wages to $13.20 per hour if they have qualifying health insurance coverage or $16.35 per hour if they don’t have health coverage under a proposal sponsored by Commissioner Jean Monestime. The national minimum wage level is $7.25 per hour, with no health coverage required. Florida has enacted a higher level, $8.10 per hour, also with no required health coverage. The county’s proposed minimum for its own service contractors would be more than double both the state’s minimum level and the nation’s. The county’s current minimum wage for its own service contractors with health coverage is $12.63, a figure that was set inApril 2016. The increase proposed by Mr. Monestime is 4.5% above that current level. The proposal was to be heard by commissioners Sept. 7, a meeting that preparations for Hurricane Irma washed away. In his resolution, Mr. Monestime says that the county “has a responsibility when spending public funds to set a community standard that permits full-time workers to live above the poverty line.” The current minimum for county services providers is spelled out in the county’s living wage ordinance as it was amended last year. That county ordinance dates to 1999, when the minimum wage was set at $8.56 per hour for contractors’ employees who get health
Jean Monestime offers change.
benefits or $9.81 per hour for those without health benefits. Since then, the wage rate and the health benefit have been adjusted annually using the US Department of Commerce’s Consumer Price Index rate for Miami-Dade County. But, Mr. Monestime says in his legislation, “the general Consumer Price Index has proved inadequate when applied to the inflationary effects on health benefits,” a factor in the commission’s 12-1 vote last year to raise the minimum levels that county contractors must pay their workers. The county’s Living Wage Commission, Mr. Monestime wrote, asked the county to review the wage rates and to push up the base levels that the commission approved last year. If commissioners approve Mr. Monestime’s proposed ordinance, it will take effect Oct. 1. The legislation would also make the new rate schedule a part of county code.