Jesse Scheckner
Gov. Ron DeSantis has vetoed legislation aiming to resolve a water dispute between two South Florida cities, keeping the state out of the conflict.
DeSantis killed HB 11, a Democrat-sponsored bill that was meant to bring parity to how much North Miami Beach charges Miami Gardens for water services.
In his veto letter to Secretary of State Cord Byrd, the Governor faulted the measure’s narrowly tailored language, which sought to codify in state statutes rules that apply only to the two cities.
“Rather than encouraging those municipalities to resolve the dispute themselves, or providing a comprehensive solution for all municipal utility consumers in the state, the bill passed by the Legislature benefits one class of ratepayers in a single municipality but may lead to ratepayers in a neighboring municipality paying more,” he wrote.
“It is not the role of the state to referee such a dispute. Municipalities should be encouraged to resolve these disputes locally. Absent that, the Legislature can institute measures — applicable to the entire state of Florida — to ensure that ratepayers inside and outside city limits have a voice in the rate setting process.”
Ironically, the expressed goal of HB 11 was to rectify an existing situation whereby ratepayers in a one municipality (Miami Gardens) have paid more for water than their neighbor (North Miami Beach).
Miami Gardens receives water from the Norwood Water Treatment Plant, which is owned by North Miami Beach but operates wholly within Miami Gardens’ bounds. A study Miami Gardens conducted found North Miami Beach has added a 25% surcharge to water outside its limits.
For Miami Gardens households that receive water from the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department, the typical quarterly bill was $91.68 two years ago. The same amount of water from Norwood cost $160.50.
Miami Gardens sued North Miami Beach over the issue in 2018, and North Miami Beach agreed to pay $9 million to close out the case last year.
That case was closed out, but there still exists in state and local mandates no guardrails to prevent localities from imposing incongruous prices. HB 11, sponsored by Rep. Felicia Robinson with upper-chamber support from Sen. Shevrin Jones, a fellow Miami Gardens resident, aimed to change that.
Robinson said HB 11 was “about parity.” The bill provided that a municipality operating a water and/or sewer plant could still levy an up to 25% surcharge to cover the extra cost of providing water service to another municipality — unless the facility rendering that service is in the recipient municipality. In such a case, the service-providing municipality must charge the recipient municipality no more than it charges its own residents.
Jones amended the measure before it passed so that it only applied to Miami Gardens and North Miami Beach. He called the current situation “taxation without representation.”
“It is time we do right by these people,” he said. “This has been going on for too long.”
Jones said Monday that he was disappointed by the Governor’s veto, but vowed to “keep pushing for a solution that centers equity and ensures that no resident is penalized simply because of where they live.”
“I brought HB 11 forward with one goal in mind: to advocate for the people I represent in Miami Gardens who, for decades, have paid more than their fair share for a basic necessity — water. This bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support because it was about fairness, nto politics,” he said. “Though this is a setback, the work continues.”
North Miami Beach Mayor Michael Joseph decried the legislation, warning in a Florida Politics op-ed that it would “set a bad precedent for government overreach” by imposing an “unnecessary burden” on his city.
“And what’s worse, we’re being asked to accept this while Miami Gardens continues charging its own residents a 10% utility tax — on water they don’t even treat or deliver,” he said. “If this was truly about helping residents save, they could start there.”
Joseph estimated that the measure would lead to a roughly $5 million loss for North Miami Beach yearly and added that his city had “made every attempt to work this out neighbor-to-neighbor,” including waiving surcharges for government accounts and repeatedly offering to negotiate on a mutually beneficial agreement.
“But instead of negotiations,” he said, “Miami Gardens went to Tallahassee to flex political muscle.”
In a separate op-ed, Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, the immediate past Mayor of Miami Gardens, said Joseph misrepresented the situation and pointed out that surcharge money North Miami Beach collects goes into its general revenue fund, not its water system fund, “proving the surcharge wasn’t used for infrastructure.”
“It’s a simple story — one community taking advantage of another,” he said.
Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Hollywood independent who cast one of two “no” votes against HB 11 and whose district includes North Miami Beach, cited Article VII, Section 18 of the Florida Constitution in explaining his opposition.
The section requires legislation that causes a local government a significant financial loss — calculated by multiplying 10 cents by Florida’s population, roughly $2.34 million now — to include a statement of fiscal impact.
HB 11 included no such statement.
