In a sea of matching teal shirts, dozens of nonprofit groups gathered outside the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami on Wednesday with a stern message for Miami-Dade Commissioners: Funding cuts will hurt the most vulnerable and cost taxpayers more money in the future.
“Let me remind everyone here today that our organizations are not luxuries. We are lifelines,” said Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center Executive Director Gepsie Metellus. “We are essential to our community’s well being.”
Metellus was among 63 local nonprofit leaders who have come together as “The Advocacy Collective” to urge full funding restorations to their programs. The current county budget proposal is providing 70% of requested funding, or about $11.6 million of $16 million…