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May 16, 2008 6:44 pm US/Eastern
"Sign" Of The Times In Miami-Dade County
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Local governments are scrambling this year to find ways to deal with deficits. For example, in Miami-Dade County every department has been told to cut back, services are going to suffer.
CBS4's Gary Nelson
reports one area where the county might save some money- you could call it a "sign' of the times.
Government gives us signs that tell us where to go, where not to go, where to stop, where not to stop, where to get off- we need these signs out there on the highway of life.
You have also seen other sigs all over Miami-Dade; blue and yellow signs that have the names of the mayor and all the county commissioners and announce that our dollars are at work improving a sidewalk, improving a bus stop, or a sign that tell us a sewage lift station is being improved.
In some cases, there are two signs in places for future projects. And everybody gets a piece of the "look what we did for you" signs- even if they didn't do anything. What does Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin have to do with sidewalk improvement?
When it comes to politicians patting themselves on the back, signs don't come cheap: the county pays $602 for every one of these signs that goes up.
"That's amazing," said one pedestrian, who saw one of the signs. "I don't know if that's the best way to spend our tax dollars."
In the last four years, the mayor and commission have spent $1,314.02 million dollars for signs telling you your dollars are at work.
A spokesperson for county hall said there's $220 million dollars that have to be cut from the budget this year and the cost of these signs is small change, a drop in the bucket.
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