To incorporation fans, numbers don't add up

It all boiled down to a numbers game.

Metro-Dade employees and Pinecrest incorporation leaders differed Monday night over whether the wealthy area would have to raise taxes if it forms its own city and enhances services. A county feasibility study suggests that Pinecrest may be forced to raise taxes.

County officials stood by their numbers. Incorporation leaders said those figures are skewed.

“If Pinecrest can’t do it, one of the wealthier areas, then I don’t know who can,” said Gary Matzner, an incorporation movement leader.

In the study, Pinecrest was compared with four cities: Miami Shores, Miami Springs, Coral Gables and Key Biscayne. The study figured out what each spends on a per capita basis.

Matzner said per capita numbers are misleading. The county took the amount that Key Biscayne pays for fire services, divided it per capita and then multiplied it by Pinecrest’s population, he said. As a result, Pinecrest’s fire service costs almost doubled because the area has more residents.

“The reality is that Key Biscayne already bought those fire engines, and it wouldn’t matter if they increased their population,” he said.

Evelyn Greer, another incorporation movement leader, said the study was a “scare tactic” and “totally inaccurate.”

The incorporation leaders’ own study shows much different figures. Incorporation supporters hired consultant Richard Henderson to formulate a theoretical city budget. His study suggests that Pinecrest could increase its police force threefold without raising taxes.

John Topinka, an analyst with the county’s Office of Management and Budget, said his department’s per capita numbers are correct.

“It’s a standard measurement used by people in the business,” Topinka said.

Which study is more reliable?

Pan Courtélis, a member of the county’s Planning Advisory Board, said the county study doesn’t provide a definitive answer.

“It’s a conservative, accurate way,” he said. The only way to know the costs for sure, Courtelis said, is to become a city.

But Metro Commissioner Katy Sorenson, the only commissioner attending the meeting, said it’s not a matter of numbers.

“There’s no question the area could afford to incorporate if the community wants to,” she said. “The question for me is what is the financial impact on the rest of the county?”

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DIVIDING DADE

OCCASIONAL SERIES