Miami Gardens is bracing for a multimillion-dollar budget hole, and the city isn’t waiting around to find out how bad it gets. Officials have already taken a hatchet to special-events spending, stripped funding from the city’s signature Jazz in the Gardens festival, and frozen most new hiring, all ahead of property tax changes that are projected to start squeezing city revenue in 2027.
The moves come as Miami Gardens estimates that Amendment 3 will cost the city nearly $9.8 million in 2027 and close to $14.2 million in 2028, according to CBS News. The city’s own website puts the first-year hit slightly lower, estimating the city could lose about $9.7 million in the first year, according to the City of Miami Gardens. Amendment 3 gives eligible homeowners a $150,000 exemption from taxable value for non-school property taxes, and the city projects that will translate into average homeowner savings of $694 in 2027 and $1,387 in 2028.
Festival Funding Disappears From Proposed Budget
Among the most visible casualties is Jazz in the Gardens, the city’s marquee entertainment event. CBS News reports that special-events spending was trimmed from $9 million to $558,000, while reporting the funding was effectively zeroed out for the festival in the city’s budget planning. The Miami Times offers a different set of figures, reporting that special-events funding fell from approximately $6.3 million in the adopted 2026 budget to $558,808 in the proposed 2027 budget — and that the 2026 adopted budget had designated $5 million specifically for Jazz in the Gardens. Whichever baseline is used, the city’s own materials confirm there is currently no funding for the festival in the 2027 proposed budget, as reported by The Miami Times.
The city has also implemented a hiring freeze that excludes police positions, per the same CBS News report. It remains unclear how long that freeze will last — the city manager’s office has said it is unsure whether the frozen positions will eventually be reinstated.
City Manager Says the Cuts Were Planned, Not Reactive
City Manager Cameron Benson addressed the budget strategy during a September hearing, saying the city had put together a budget anticipating that something may happen, according to CBS News’s reporting. The city manager’s office has also noted that 1,400 homes in Miami Gardens already pay zero property taxes, a detail that underscores how much of the tax base is already exempt before Amendment 3’s new provisions take effect. On its website, the city lists special events, social services, parks, and road maintenance among the areas that could be affected by the revenue loss…