Cities across the United States are experiencing rising crime rates, homelessness, and public disorder, alongside deteriorating infrastructure and a decline in the quality of public services like policing, sanitation, transportation management, and the resolution of abandoned properties. Major cities have been losing population for a decade or more, and now even the suburbs of those urban areas are losing people to more effectively managed cities in better governed states. Miami, Florida, has resisted the trend toward urban decline, enjoying rapid economic growth and record-low crime rates in the 2020s. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez joins Budget & Tax News to discuss the state of America’s cities and the solutions to the nation’s urban problems.
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S.T. Karnick (00:00):
Hello. Welcome to the Heartland Institute's budget
and tax news podcast. I'm s tKarnick, a senior fellow and
director of publications at theHeartland Institute. Cities
across the country are sufferingfrom rising crime rates,
homelessness, and publicdisorder, accompanied by
deteriorating infrastructure andreductions in the quality of
(00:20):
public services, such aspolicing, sanitation,
transportation management, andthe resolution of abandoned
properties. Major cities havebeen losing population for a
decade or more, and now even thesuburbs of those urban areas are
losing people to moreeffectively manage cities in
better governed states.
(00:41):
Miami, Florida has resisted thattrend. Francis Suarez became the
43rd mayor of Miami in 2017after serving as a city
commissioner for 8 years. In2023, mayor Suarez said, quote,
in Miami, we didn't wait forWashington. We chose to lead.
While Washington flirts withfiscal disaster and dysfunction,
(01:04):
we chose fiscal sanity, endquote.
In his state of the city addressearlier this year, Mayor Suarez
touted Miami's, quote,historically low unemployment
rate of 1.6%, unquote, which isvery low. And he thanked the
Miami Police Department. Heannounced the lowest levels of
per capita homicides since thecity started tracking homicides
(01:26):
in 1947. 2023 was the safestyear on record in Miami, with 31
homicides recorded in 2023, 1800affordable housing units and 26,
000 new construction permitsvalued at more than $4, 000,
000, 000 were recorded, themayor has stated. Mayor Suarez
(01:48):
says the permitting process willbe streamlined to make building
residences even easier in 2024.
Miami, Florida mayor FrancisSuarez joins budget and tax news
to discuss the state of Americacities and solutions to the
nation's thorny urban problems.Welcome, mister mayor.
Mayor Suarez (02:08):
Thank you. It's wonderful to be with you on this
podcast.
S.T. Karnick (02:13):
I really appreciate having you as a
guest. Mayor, what was thesituation in Miami when you took
over in 2017 as the mayor of thecity? What did you see as the
city's strengths and weaknesses,and how were government policies
affecting them?
Mayor Suarez (02:28):
I could actually like to go back to 2, 009. 2009
was when I first became a citycouncilman. And, you know, you
wouldn't know it today, but ourcity was basically broke. We
were, we had what they call a donothing deficit of a $115, 000,
000 on a $600, 000, 000 budget,meaning that if you did nothing,
(02:49):
if you made no changes, if youdid nothing to to influence,
income or expenses, you wouldhave a $115, 000, 000 deficit.
So we did something veryunusual.
We actually cut cost. We we cutour expenses. And so I often
joke and laugh when I hear aboutthe federal deficit and how, you
(03:09):
know, it's too big cut and it'simpossible to get it under
control. III know that's falsebecause I did, and it wasn't fun
and it wasn't easy, but it isdoable. You can cut 20% of your,
expenses in 1 year.
That's what I had to do. That'sprecisely what has to be done at
the federal level today. We didthat. We balanced our budget. We
(03:31):
had 15, 000, 000 in reserves atthe time.
Today, we were able to, youknow, sort of fast forward 15
years into the future. We nowhave the highest reserves in
history, the lowest tax rate inhistory, and the most growth
that we've ever had in history.So, you know, it's it's it's a
it's a very, very differentplace than it was in 2009 when I
(03:54):
got there. It was a completeturnaround job, and we've had to
do it in multiple differentphases.
S.T. Karnick (04:00):
What are, so the tax rates are lower. How are
revenues?
Mayor Suarez (04:06):
Our revenues have gone through the roof. So, you
know, we grew last year 12%. Wegrew the year before that 14%.
We grew the year before that12%. In the pandemic, we grew 6
a half percent.
And the 2 preceding years, itwas 10 a half and 8 a half. So
since I became mayor in 2017,which is the right year to to to
(04:28):
focus on, our tax base, which isthe value of all properties in
the city, was $40, 000, 000,000. Today, it's close to a
$100, 000, 000, 000. So it's a150% growth in 7 years.
S.T. Karnick (04:40):
That's impressive. Now that's a really interesting
point, though, that we talkabout tax base, because and
that's true, as you pointed out,on the federal level, on the
state level, everywhere. If youhave a bigger and growing
economy, you get more taxrevenue even if you cut taxes.
And the way you get that revenueand the way you get the bigger
(05:01):
economy is by cutting taxes. Andyou did that.
So what kinds of things did youcut?
Mayor Suarez (05:06):
Well, it's actually interesting. We cut the
tax rate. But because we had somuch growth, we actually grew
our budget. Our budget grew.Right?
So so it's it's there's what Icall negative feedback loops and
there are positive feedbackloops. So, like, what you see in
New York is what I call anegative feedback loop. Right?
You raise taxes, people leave,and then you have a budget
(05:28):
deficit. And so you have toraise taxes to meet that, to
meet that threshold, right, tomeet that your expenses.
That is what I call a deathspiral, a negative feedback
loop. By by contrast, what wedid was we lowered taxes, more
people wanted to come, right? Wegrew and then we had more
revenue to do the things that wewanted to do, like increase our,
(05:50):
you know, police force. We'veincreased our budget for police
more than we ever had. We havemore officers than we've ever
had.
We never got into this deep fundpolice nonsense, which which was
never partisan before. Before,when I was coming into politics,
in the inner city neighborhoodswould complain they didn't have
enough police officers, thatthey didn't they didn't get with
the with the with the wealthyareas. Now you have people,
(06:13):
particularly on the left,saying, you know, we wanna
defund our police. We wanna takeaway responsibilities from our
police force. We wanna be antipolice.
And I think that is somethingthat is not American, to be
honest. And, you know, we did iswe invested our marginal dollar
in policing. We investedinvested our marginal dollars in
finding ways to be moreproductive on technology. And
(06:36):
and and what we did was we saw atremendous amount of increase in
productivity and a reduction incrime. And so we also created a
healthier ecosystem, and that'salso a positive feedback.
What do I mean by that? If youhave the lowest unemployment in
America, you cited the number1.6. I think that number is
actually a little dated. If weactually got to 1.4, believe it
or not, which is, like, 1.6%below cyclical unemployment of
(06:59):
3%. Right?
We we, I call it hyper fullemployment, by the way. We we
got to a hyper full employmentstate, and we also ranked the
happiest city of America and thehealthy city of America. So what
I often tell people is, look,this is not rocket science. If
you're happy, you're healthy,and you're working, what aren't
you doing? You're not committingviolent crime.
So, obviously, our violent crimenumbers drastically reduced
(07:23):
during that period of time, by amassive factor. In fact, our you
cited our our 2023 homicide rateof 31. The high watermark in the
city was 220 in 1980. So you'retalking about an 85% reduction
from the high watermark in 21980.
S.T. Karnick (07:43):
That's an interesting point you make that
if if people are are working andthey're enjoying their lives and
they've got something to do,Crime is less appealing as a
sort of way of life. I wanna goback to 1 thing. You mentioned
about the, your budget. Did youat the time, starting in 2017,
(08:04):
were you constrained in havingto say, well, we have a balanced
budget and here's what it lookslike? But were you able to say
that we're going to, cut these,tax rates?
But did you have to say, butwe're going to get more revenue?
And did anybody buy thatargument? Because people look at
things as not in a dynamic way,but in a static way.
Mayor Suarez (08:23):
Sure. And I'll tell you what what we actually
did. Firstly, we had to balanceour budget. We had a $150, 000,
000 deficit. So the first thingwe had to do was cut cost.
And what we did there was 2things that most cities, most
governments never do. Weactually reduced, wages, and we
reduced pensions. Okay? So we wedid 2 things. Most governments
(08:46):
don't do it.
It was ugly because ourobviously, our employees didn't
like it. So we did tier we didtiered salary we didn't lay out
anybody, by the way. So when youtalk about reduction in
services, there wasn't anyreduction in services. All we
did was we said, if you makeover, I believe, a $120, 000 was
the threshold, you get a 12% paycut. And then we did a tier 975
(09:08):
all the way.
If you made less than $50, 000,you got a 0% pay cut. Right? If
you're if you're someone thatwas making less than $50, 000,
you didn't get a pay cut. But wedid tier reductions, and then we
did something also an an unheardof, which is we put, limits on
our pension system. Right?
We actually had a definedbenefit pension system where at
(09:29):
the time, you couldtheoretically retire, this is
crazy, with over a 100% of yoursalary as a benefit for the rest
of your life. So you can retire,like, 55, okay, with a 105% a
110% of your salary for the restof your life. So you could you
know, if you live 8 to 85 or 90,right, people are living more
(09:50):
and more, you're talking about a45 year liability guaranteed by
the city, right, with cost ofliving adjustments and all kinds
of stuff. So we put we putcurves on that. We put a a limit
on what you could accumulate,never been done before.
We reduced the multipliers,never been done before. Right?
So we we got a savings, thatthat equaled our basically
(10:13):
equaled our, our income. So wereduce costs. Once we put
ourselves in a in a good fiscalplace, what I call getting back
to reality, like, fiscalreality, like, we're not living
in fiction right now.
The federal government is livingin fiction. Right? We have these
bloated budgets. And, you know,I I always love when people say,
oh, if you're a republican, areyou gonna cut entitlements? Are
(10:35):
you gonna cut military spending?
Are you gonna cut XYZ? You youyou just fill in the blank.
Right? And my answer is simple.It's not about cutting those
budgets.
Those budgets are operating onfictitious dollars. They're not
operating on a real dollar term.So do they have to be placed
back on real dollar terms? Ofcourse. Because otherwise,
they're just spending money ontheir credit card every year.
(10:57):
Right? So the first thing we didwas cut cost, then once we did
that without increasing taxes, Ithink we sent out a message to
to the community that we wantedtheir investment. Right? We were
not going to go to theirpocketbook to sustain
government. So that is whatstarted the flood of
investments, which allowed us toreduce taxes over time as our
income grew.
(11:17):
What's interesting is our budgetwent down from 600 to 500, 000,
000, right, we cut a $100, 000,000. Today, my budget is a 1,
200, 000, 000, 2. So my budgethas grown by 700, 000, 000,
right, by by 150%. And allbecause of growth, not because
of and we've reduced taxes alongthe way.
S.T. Karnick (11:33):
This is how it works for any government. If you
if if you make it so that youryour revenues are going to
increase because people aredoing more, They're creating
more goods and services withinyour realm. You're going to get
more tax money, and then you'llbe able to do more things.
Mayor Suarez (11:52):
Absolutely. When you think about, like,
homelessness, for example, I wasjust talking to the mayor of San
Diego, great guy, really smartguy. You know, a democrat run
city that is a lot like Miami,but he's got 6, 000 homeless. I
have 630. Okay?
And I wanna be the 1st majorAmerican city to have no
homeless, 0 homeless. That's mygoal. Right? So we don't have to
(12:15):
be, capitalist and lackingcompassion. On the contrary, and
by the way, we don't also thinkthat government is the arbiter
of success.
Right? We think that governmentshould facilitate success,
oftentimes should get out of theway, and sometimes be creative
as a force multiplier, but we'reno arbiter of success. The
(12:36):
success or failure of ourcommunity is based on the
ingenuity of our community, theability to risk capital, and the
ability to get things done on atimely basis, which we influence
if we're not timely with ourapprovals.
S.T. Karnick (12:49):
Well, your choice to start with with cuts to the
p, that that, is governmentemployees are receiving is
obviously a bold 1 becausethey're not gonna be happy about
that. However, it's an important1 because government employees
are paid a lot more than privatesector employees. They're
comparable employees. And as youmentioned, their their pensions
(13:13):
are incredibly far beyond what,the people who are paying the
taxes are getting if they'regetting anything. So what you
what you're doing is you're kindof reversing the priority of
things, things, saying, what isit that the taxpayers need, and
how do we get there?
Can you talk a little about howyou make that decision and then
(13:36):
how you sell that to the public?
Mayor Suarez (13:39):
I think it starts with you know, it was painful,
as you said, but it wasnecessary. And I'll tell you
this, the the there is anemployee there's there were
employees at the time thatwouldn't shake my hand, And
there isn't an employee todaythat won't give me a hug because
what they what they have nowseen is unprecedented growth,
which has gone to their bottomline as well. Because 80% of our
(14:02):
costs are employee driven costs.Right? Whether they're,
insurance, whether they'repension, or whether they're
wages, that's 80% of my budgetregardless.
So if my budget grows, guesswhich grows? Their wages, their
pension, and their right? So sothey have seen even though they
took a hit that year, which wasa significant hit, they have
seen the other side of it. Theythey have to have faith in me,
(14:25):
in my leadership, in myecosystem building abilities,
and realize that, hey, we took ahit because it was necessary.
But we're gonna we're gonna ridethe upside as well.
It's like any business. You knowwhat I mean? You you ride the
upside, your employees ride theupside. Any business that's a
sort service oriented businesslike ours, you wanna have more
compensated employees that aremotivated and that are and that
(14:46):
are are excited to do their job.Having said that, they have to
know that their leader issomeone who's gonna tell them
the truth.
And, you know, when times arenot good, you're not gonna you
know, you can't benefit all thetime. You know? So I think I
think that's part of it. Ithink, you know, we were able to
do these things without reducingservices. So our our residents
(15:06):
didn't feel it.
And we also didn't increasetaxes, so our residents didn't
feel like we were passing thebuck of making tough decisions
on their back. Right. I thinkall too often what happens is
these unions become verypowerful, these labor unions,
and they get people elected Andthe the the elected officials
don't wanna stand up to them.And so the easier thing to do,
(15:28):
ironically, is to pass the billalong to the ultimate customer
because they say, oh, we'll justspread it out over a large pool
of people, and it's it's it'smore nominal that way. But they
fail to see that people aregetting crushed, right, in the
taxes that they're paying.
When you when you think about acity like New York, right, and
you throw in there, incometaxes, state income taxes, city
(15:51):
income taxes, property taxes,sales tax. Right? When you throw
in all those taxes, not tomention ancillary taxes on a
variety of other things, you'retalking about 6 60¢ on the
dollar. Right? Like, you you I Ialways joke with my New Yorker
friends and I tell them, youknow, in your business, you have
a, you have a a you're theminority partner in your own
(16:12):
business.
Right? And and you're the silentpartner because your majority
partner is spending all yourmoney. You know what I mean? You
have no voice over your how yourmoney's being spent. So it's,
like, it's disheartening.
And at least you come to a placelike Florida where if you're in
the highest tax bracket, you payno state income tax. So you so
your government is your minorityshareholder instead of a
majority partner. Right? And,you know, we gotta find a way to
(16:37):
do more with less and and tojust stop taxing people. It just
makes it so hard to succeed inthis country.
S.T. Karnick (16:42):
The thing that you mentioned that is really, kind
of a third rail is the,government employees. They
really, have a lot of influencein any big city and even on the
state level, not so much on thenational level, but certainly in
the cities and the states. Sowhen you took over as mayor,
(17:03):
you're 2017. It's like, okay, wesit down and you sit down behind
the desk. Are you thinking, Ican do this and it'll work?
And and because of how economicprinciple because of the
economic principles that Iunderstand and so forth, we're
going to do well. And 4 yearsfrom now, people are going to be
(17:24):
saying, you know, that reallyworked. Or did you sit down and
think, if I'm not here 4 yearsfrom now, that that's okay.
Mayor Suarez (17:31):
So I my I my thinking was more like, these
are the principles that Ibelieve in. Right? I don't
believe in growing government. Ibelieve in shrinking the size of
government, which a lot ofRepublicans say but never do.
Right?
I actually have done it, and Iactually believe in it. And then
I'll be honest with you. I didnot I underestimated how
(17:52):
enormous the ecosystem impactwould be, the macroeconomic
impact would be. Part partlybecause there were other factors
that were happening thatsupercharged it. What do I mean
by that?
The SALT deduction going away.Right? That was a massive, sort
of
S.T. Karnick (18:09):
explain what the SALT is.
Mayor Suarez (18:10):
Sure. The state and local tax deduction. So in
states like Illinois, Illinois,New York, and California, you
used to be able to deduct yourstate and local taxes from your
federal income tax. In effect,low tax states like Florida were
subsidizing high tax states likeNew York, California, and
(18:30):
Illinois because they weretaking it right off the bottom
line on their on their federalincome tax. So we were all
paying for it.
Right? The, you know, Paul Ryanand and Donald Trump in the in
the the the last, tax package in2, 000, I believe, in 17 or 18
S.T. Karnick (18:46):
17. Tax Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Mayor Suarez (18:48):
Right. In that Jobs Act, they took away that
exemption. And so now everyonewho was paying state and local
taxes could not deduct that fromtheir federal income tax. So
essentially, your taxes went upby double digits, and so that
was a huge macro factor. Youknow, remote work in COVID was
another major disruptive forcebecause because that that self
(19:10):
deduction person can now say,hey.
What if I work in Miami, right,remotely? Right? And I don't
have to pay these taxes. Andthen they start working in Miami
and they realize, wait a second.Ken Griffin is here.
Wait a second. Orlando Bravo ishere. Wait a second. You know,
Blackstone just opened anoffice. Wait a second.
You know? Atlanta companies getbetter workers. Exactly. And and
(19:31):
and there was a network, right,to continue to grow companies
and scale companies that was notthere before. And then I think
the third thing was ourattitude.
You know, you have tounderstand, you have to go back
in the moment. And this is preAI and you know, which has
helped a lot of San Franciscofor reasons that we can talk
about. But, the pre AI momentwas New York saying no after
(19:53):
winning the Amazon HQ 2 prize.Right? They win the prize,
Virginia and New York, and itwas a shock for many people.
And they said no, on top ofeverything else. It's like, why
do you apply? And then say no.And then that's a $1, 000, 000,
000, 000 company that wants tocreate 50, 000 high paying jobs,
and you're basically saying wedon't want you. Right?
And then at the same time inCalifornia, you had a elected
(20:14):
official saying f Elon Musk,fill in the blank. Right? And
then he wrote message received,and he left to Austin. Right? So
you had 2 signals from 2 bigmarkets, the financial
heavyweight market of the worldand the venture heavyweight
market of the world saying, youbrought you you create $1, 000,
000, 000 companies.
You're the richest guy in theworld. We don't want you. Right?
(20:36):
And so at the same time, therewas a tweet that said, what if
we move Silicon Valley to Miami?And I responded, how can I help?
You know? So my entire idea ofhow can I help? How can I help
build this ecosystem? How can wemaximize this moment? How can we
change the landscape on things?
That, for me, was, the turningpoint, right, where we started
(20:58):
to see exponential growth. So soto answer your question, yes, I
thought lowering taxes, whichwas my philosophy, was going to
spur growth, but what we saw wasso so high in part for a variety
of other reasons that influencesdemand.
S.T. Karnick (21:14):
Yes. You have to start then with the premise that
the government honestly is thereto serve the people, but to
protect their rights to life,liberty and property. And that's
what it's for. Andredistributing wealth and things
like that are not appropriate,and they don't work.
Mayor Suarez (21:36):
I agree. They don't work. They're not
appropriate. You don't have tolook much further than 90 miles
below us, in Cuba where myparents were exiled, where a
charismatic leader said, give usall your businesses, give us all
your property, and we'll makeeverybody equal. And he did.
He made everybody equally poorand equally miserable. Right. It
it it was it was effective.Right? He he delivered on his
(21:57):
promise of equality, equalmisery, and equal poverty for
everybody.
Right? So, you know, III thinkwhen you when you want when you
look at the United States as themost prosperous nation on earth
on a almost on a per capitabasis, we're massive. So some
some some countries that aresmaller than us maybe beat us
out on a per capita basis, butin terms of a large country,
we're by far 1 of the mostprosperous per capita countries
(22:19):
in the world, all because wegive people the freedom to
explore and to, innovate and tocreate. Right? And and and then
get out of the way most of thetime in terms of government.
And like you said, government,it should be limited. It should
be limited to its competencies,which are not many, and and and
that's it. You know? Do whatyou're meant to do. Do what you
(22:40):
were created to do.
You were created, by the way, byus, for us. Right? And you you
take on this sort of third partylife where you think you're kind
of you you're there to do otherthings, like, all these all
these sociological things thatthat government was not meant to
to be, created for, as you said.And and that's when you get into
real trouble.
S.T. Karnick (23:02):
1 of the central things that government is
supposed to do is to keep thepeace, and and in particular
that that in cities, that'sobviously crime control. And
interestingly enough, in 2020,you sort of had a downward
spiral in many cities all acrossthe country, and then it was
really accelerating by then. Sothese these were national
(23:24):
trends. And you saw inparticular a large amount of
media attention seeming to, howwould you say, endorse those
trends, endorse disorder, and,and and and endorse the
reduction of policing and ofprosecuting people for crimes.
(23:47):
How did Miami respond to thosetrends?
Because as you mentioned, in2020, things really started to
get even better for
Mayor Suarez (23:54):
you. They did. And I think we were again, we're
we're counter narrative. Right?We we believe in law and order.
We we think, as a lot of usimmigrants to this country or
our parents are immigrants tothis country, what we know about
this country is the fact thatit's a country of laws. Right?
It's the fact that, you know,for there to be order, laws not
to be enforced. And you're notdoing a service to anyone by not
(24:17):
applying the law. You're notdoing a service to the people
who benefit, who who who whorequire that law to be enforced
to benefit from it, like people,for example, that wanna go shop
out of Walmart or a, you know,CVS when they get closed because
of, you know, petty theft isessentially legalized in certain
areas.
And you're not helping theperson who's doing the wrong
(24:37):
because you're not giving themthe right, lesson. The lesson is
not, you know, if you're inneed, go and just take whatever
you want. Right? The lessonshould be if you're in need, let
us find a way to help you. Youcan so you can earn a way, to to
provide for yourself, which wedo in in in abundance here in
this country.
Right? We're constantly I mean,today, I was with, I was in a
(25:00):
hotel where we were, you know,we're trying to host, like I
said, house all these, homelesspeople, right, in terms of
getting the number down from630. We did a fundraiser a
couple of weeks ago I did, andwe've housed a 150 of the 630 in
3 weeks. And I went to visitsome of them in in a hotel.
There's about 12 families in ahotel.
You know, and we're helping themfind jobs and be productive. And
(25:21):
and, you know, not all of themhave substance abuse issues.
Some of them do. We wanna helpthem as well. So, you know, it
it it's it's not about beinglawless.
Right? On the contrary, it'sit's about being compassionate.
I don't think you're beingcompassionate when you just let
people violate the law. And thatwas happening. And I also think,
frankly, you know, not to get onmy high horse about socialism,
(25:42):
but I think the the the theobjective of our enemies is for
us to destroy ourselves fromwithin.
It's us to destroy ourselves byfighting with each other. And
when they they infiltrate us byby trying to influence certain
whether it's academia or thepress, to try to reshape what is
(26:04):
good. And when things like, youknow, law and order start to
become politicized or political,Right? And you see, you know,
defund police movements, no castbail movements, you know, all
these things that areantithetical to American values,
you know that that's our enemiesat work, right? And those who
(26:26):
wanna see democracy destroyedbecause democracy is hard.
Winston Churchill once said,democracy is the worst form of
government except for all theothers. Right? It's hard. You
have to work at it. You gottafight for it.
A lot of blood has been shedhere and abroad, for our
democracy.
S.T. Karnick (26:43):
So much of this appears to be just governments
taking on much more than isappropriate for governments to
do. And there are things thatthey simply cannot do well. And
this, as you as you point out,this is very rapidly increasing
difference between what you callred and blue states and red and
blue cities. Could you addressthat? How lawmakers can create a
(27:08):
a better understanding of whatis at stake when city people
enter the voting booth, how theycan know what their true
interests are, and and maybesome ways that you've you've
tried to change that, thinking?
Mayor Suarez (27:21):
Yeah. I mean, I think it goes back to what I
said earlier that, you know,government is created to address
certain competencies, not allcompetencies. They're not
competent to handle every issue.And I'll give you an example
from the city. It's sort of amicroscopic example.
We have a piece of property thatis, a defunct, marine stadium,
(27:43):
and we wanna rebuild it. Butwe're not in the event business.
Right? We don't we don't we'renot in the event. We don't we
don't have a tax.
We don't you know, that's notwhat we do. We we clean the
garbage. We have a building andzoning department. We police our
streets, and we respond whenthere's a fire or when there is
a medical emergency. Right?
(28:03):
That's what we do. Right? We'renot in the entertainment
business. So we're gonna find aprivate sector company that is
in the entertainment business tomanage this asset. Right?
And we'll have some sort ofrevenue share with them. They're
gonna take a lot of the risk. Soit also deprased risk from our
perspective because we don'thave to take on a lot of this
risk. And so it's just beingsmart about what you're good at
(28:26):
and understanding what you'renot good at. And I think those
kinds of organizations like, Itold you, I I had no reserves in
2009, and now I have over $200,000, 000 in debt.
So imagine the government that'sthe exact opposite of the
federal government. Instead ofhaving $30, 000, 000, 000, 000
in debt, or, you know, and itruns at a deficit, we run-in an
annual surplus, and we have$200, 000, 000 in cap. Right? So
(28:51):
it's just it's crazy, the waythat things are happening at the
federal level.
S.T. Karnick (28:56):
I think what you're you're saying about the
federal government is obviouslyit's correct. And I think that
it is a real lesson to thepublic. Is that something where
people cities who may perceivethemselves as benefiting from
the federal government? And can,is there ways to, express and
(29:18):
clarify exactly how much allthis is costing? Even people who
don't pay any honestly, don'tpay any federal taxes at all?
Mayor Suarez (29:27):
Part of the problem is that these things at
the federal level, there's somuch manipulation, right,
through the Fed, monetarypolicy, and and even through
fiscal policy, right, deficitspending, that that every
regular, everyday person is notgonna feel it until there's a
crisis. We we keep thinking thatwe're on the precipice of a
(29:49):
crisis and it doesn't happen. Idon't wanna I don't want it to
happen, by the way. I don't wantit to happen because I'm afraid
of how cataclysmic it will getif the US has a financial crisis
of of the They may. Of what ofwhat could happen.
Right? I mean, it would be aworld crisis. So how do we get
our act together? I think we canget our act together. I've done
(30:11):
it.
Right? I think it's just aboutliving in the real world, and
then I think we need to put insome controls that don't
currently exist. You know, Ithink we should have a balanced
budget amendment to theconstitution, which requires us
to balance just like we have todo with states and local
governments. We're requiredconstitutionally to balance our
budget unless there's some sortof an emergency, a pandemic, a
(30:31):
war, you know, some act ofcongress that allows us to stray
from that for a temporary periodof time to address a need, I
think we should be required tobalance our budget. We need to
live in the real world.
Every single family in Americadoes it. Why shouldn't the
federal government do it? Right?And I think that would go a long
way. And then I think we need tounderstand what the size of the
(30:52):
government should be.
Right? I mean, you know, whenyou have people that are paying
50% plus in overall tax rates togovernments, that is not
American. Right? That that isbordering on socialism. Right?
When you when you are inpartnership with the government,
and the government makes moremoney off your production than
you do. It doesn't make anysense. That makes absolutely 0
(31:13):
sense. You know, and I thinkthat's something that we got to
address over the long run too.
S.T. Karnick (31:19):
That's, just very briefly, how has the state of
Florida you're in a a fairly redstate, although it wasn't quite
as red in 2019, I don't think.But you're in a fairly red
state. Does that help?
Mayor Suarez (31:33):
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we're like you
said, we're a net so so thestate makes most of its money on
state tax and not the consumertax. Mhmm. Good. And and and
when you're growing the waywe're growing in terms of
population, the migration fromnew states, you see an uptick on
that even though we haven'tchanged that tax rate.
So that that, you know, that'salso created an increase in in
(31:56):
revenue. So, you know, look, I Ithink, you know, if if the tax
cuts are somehow extended andthe self deduction continues to,
to be the law of the land, Ithink we're gonna see, states
have to make some major changes.Otherwise, there's going to be
so much in population thatthey're they're going to
(32:18):
collapse into themselves.
S.T. Karnick (32:20):
That's absolutely true. Is there anything else
you'd like to tell our listenersbefore we go?
Mayor Suarez (32:27):
You know, I have I'm optimistic. You know, I
think we're in a generationalturning of the page. My dad,
who's a great man, is 75 yearsold. He was the 1st Cuban mayor
in Miami. He came to his countryat 12.
He was the 9th of 14 kids. Got ascholarship to high school,
presidential scholarship tocollege, and 2 graduate degrees
from an Ivy League school, youknow, a quintessential American
(32:50):
story. And we love this country.And I think, you know, I think
that in this upcominggeneration, we're gonna have to
apple some big problems. I thinkthey're they're they're
defeatable.
We gotta make tough choices justlike it always is. It always
comes down to tough choices anddiscipline. Some of those, you
know, age old terms that peoplesometimes don't like to hear,
(33:12):
but are required in order tohave success. And and I think
the next generation hopefullywill do it for themselves and
their children.
S.T. Karnick (33:21):
Thank you, mayor, so much for talking with the
budget and tax news today. Howcan people contact your office?
Mayor Suarez (33:27):
You can email me at ssoares@miamigob.com.
Ssoares@miamigob.com. You canalso send me a message on my
Instagram page or on Twitter. Icheck those regularly, and I
also have a team of people thatchecks them and responds. Either
1 of those, ways you can get ahold of me.
S.T. Karnick (33:44):
Our guest today was Miami, Florida mayor Francis
Suarez. Thank you, mayor, andthank you listeners for joining
the podcast. Thanks. You're verywelcome, and I appreciate having
you here. Please leave a 5 starreview of whatever platform
you're using to listen to thispodcast.
Follow me at atstkarnick onsocial media and visit
heartlanddailynews.com for thenation's best news coverage and
(34:07):
commentary on public policyissues. This is ST Karnick for
the Heartland Institute's budgetand tax news podcast.
Hello. Welcome to the Heartland Institute's budget
and tax news podcast. I'm s tKarnick, a senior fellow and
director of publications at theHeartland Institute. Cities
across the country are sufferingfrom rising crime rates,
homelessness, and publicdisorder, accompanied by
deteriorating infrastructure andreductions in the quality of
(00:20):
public services, such aspolicing, sanitation,
transportation management, andthe resolution of abandoned
properties. Major cities havebeen losing population for a
decade or more, and now even thesuburbs of those urban areas are
losing people to moreeffectively manage cities in
better governed states.
(00:41):
Miami, Florida has resisted thattrend. Francis Suarez became the
43rd mayor of Miami in 2017after serving as a city
commissioner for 8 years. In2023, mayor Suarez said, quote,
in Miami, we didn't wait forWashington. We chose to lead.
While Washington flirts withfiscal disaster and dysfunction,
(01:04):
we chose fiscal sanity, endquote.
In his state of the city addressearlier this year, Mayor Suarez
touted Miami's, quote,historically low unemployment
rate of 1.6%, unquote, which isvery low. And he thanked the
Miami Police Department. Heannounced the lowest levels of
per capita homicides since thecity started tracking homicides
(01:26):
in 1947. 2023 was the safestyear on record in Miami, with 31
homicides recorded in 2023, 1800affordable housing units and 26,
000 new construction permitsvalued at more than $4, 000,
000, 000 were recorded, themayor has stated. Mayor Suarez
(01:48):
says the permitting process willbe streamlined to make building
residences even easier in 2024.
Miami, Florida mayor FrancisSuarez joins budget and tax news
to discuss the state of Americacities and solutions to the
nation's thorny urban problems.Welcome, mister mayor.
Mayor Suarez (02:08):
Thank you. It's wonderful to be with you on this
podcast.
S.T. Karnick (02:13):
I really appreciate having you as a
guest. Mayor, what was thesituation in Miami when you took
over in 2017 as the mayor of thecity? What did you see as the
city's strengths and weaknesses,and how were government policies
affecting them?
Mayor Suarez (02:28):
I could actually like to go back to 2, 009. 2009
was when I first became a citycouncilman. And, you know, you
wouldn't know it today, but ourcity was basically broke. We
were, we had what they call a donothing deficit of a $115, 000,
000 on a $600, 000, 000 budget,meaning that if you did nothing,
(02:49):
if you made no changes, if youdid nothing to to influence,
income or expenses, you wouldhave a $115, 000, 000 deficit.
So we did something veryunusual.
We actually cut cost. We we cutour expenses. And so I often
joke and laugh when I hear aboutthe federal deficit and how, you
(03:09):
know, it's too big cut and it'simpossible to get it under
control. III know that's falsebecause I did, and it wasn't fun
and it wasn't easy, but it isdoable. You can cut 20% of your,
expenses in 1 year.
That's what I had to do. That'sprecisely what has to be done at
the federal level today. We didthat. We balanced our budget. We
(03:31):
had 15, 000, 000 in reserves atthe time.
Today, we were able to, youknow, sort of fast forward 15
years into the future. We nowhave the highest reserves in
history, the lowest tax rate inhistory, and the most growth
that we've ever had in history.So, you know, it's it's it's a
it's a very, very differentplace than it was in 2009 when I
(03:54):
got there. It was a completeturnaround job, and we've had to
do it in multiple differentphases.
S.T. Karnick (04:00):
What are, so the tax rates are lower. How are
revenues?
Mayor Suarez (04:06):
Our revenues have gone through the roof. So, you
know, we grew last year 12%. Wegrew the year before that 14%.
We grew the year before that12%. In the pandemic, we grew 6
a half percent.
And the 2 preceding years, itwas 10 a half and 8 a half. So
since I became mayor in 2017,which is the right year to to to
(04:28):
focus on, our tax base, which isthe value of all properties in
the city, was $40, 000, 000,000. Today, it's close to a
$100, 000, 000, 000. So it's a150% growth in 7 years.
S.T. Karnick (04:40):
That's impressive. Now that's a really interesting
point, though, that we talkabout tax base, because and
that's true, as you pointed out,on the federal level, on the
state level, everywhere. If youhave a bigger and growing
economy, you get more taxrevenue even if you cut taxes.
And the way you get that revenueand the way you get the bigger
(05:01):
economy is by cutting taxes. Andyou did that.
So what kinds of things did youcut?
Mayor Suarez (05:06):
Well, it's actually interesting. We cut the
tax rate. But because we had somuch growth, we actually grew
our budget. Our budget grew.Right?
So so it's it's there's what Icall negative feedback loops and
there are positive feedbackloops. So, like, what you see in
New York is what I call anegative feedback loop. Right?
You raise taxes, people leave,and then you have a budget
(05:28):
deficit. And so you have toraise taxes to meet that, to
meet that threshold, right, tomeet that your expenses.
That is what I call a deathspiral, a negative feedback
loop. By by contrast, what wedid was we lowered taxes, more
people wanted to come, right? Wegrew and then we had more
revenue to do the things that wewanted to do, like increase our,
(05:50):
you know, police force. We'veincreased our budget for police
more than we ever had. We havemore officers than we've ever
had.
We never got into this deep fundpolice nonsense, which which was
never partisan before. Before,when I was coming into politics,
in the inner city neighborhoodswould complain they didn't have
enough police officers, thatthey didn't they didn't get with
the with the with the wealthyareas. Now you have people,
(06:13):
particularly on the left,saying, you know, we wanna
defund our police. We wanna takeaway responsibilities from our
police force. We wanna be antipolice.
And I think that is somethingthat is not American, to be
honest. And, you know, we did iswe invested our marginal dollar
in policing. We investedinvested our marginal dollars in
finding ways to be moreproductive on technology. And
(06:36):
and and what we did was we saw atremendous amount of increase in
productivity and a reduction incrime. And so we also created a
healthier ecosystem, and that'salso a positive feedback.
What do I mean by that? If youhave the lowest unemployment in
America, you cited the number1.6. I think that number is
actually a little dated. If weactually got to 1.4, believe it
or not, which is, like, 1.6%below cyclical unemployment of
(06:59):
3%. Right?
We we, I call it hyper fullemployment, by the way. We we
got to a hyper full employmentstate, and we also ranked the
happiest city of America and thehealthy city of America. So what
I often tell people is, look,this is not rocket science. If
you're happy, you're healthy,and you're working, what aren't
you doing? You're not committingviolent crime.
So, obviously, our violent crimenumbers drastically reduced
(07:23):
during that period of time, by amassive factor. In fact, our you
cited our our 2023 homicide rateof 31. The high watermark in the
city was 220 in 1980. So you'retalking about an 85% reduction
from the high watermark in 21980.
S.T. Karnick (07:43):
That's an interesting point you make that
if if people are are working andthey're enjoying their lives and
they've got something to do,Crime is less appealing as a
sort of way of life. I wanna goback to 1 thing. You mentioned
about the, your budget. Did youat the time, starting in 2017,
(08:04):
were you constrained in havingto say, well, we have a balanced
budget and here's what it lookslike? But were you able to say
that we're going to, cut these,tax rates?
But did you have to say, butwe're going to get more revenue?
And did anybody buy thatargument? Because people look at
things as not in a dynamic way,but in a static way.
Mayor Suarez (08:23):
Sure. And I'll tell you what what we actually
did. Firstly, we had to balanceour budget. We had a $150, 000,
000 deficit. So the first thingwe had to do was cut cost.
And what we did there was 2things that most cities, most
governments never do. Weactually reduced, wages, and we
reduced pensions. Okay? So we wedid 2 things. Most governments
(08:46):
don't do it.
It was ugly because ourobviously, our employees didn't
like it. So we did tier we didtiered salary we didn't lay out
anybody, by the way. So when youtalk about reduction in
services, there wasn't anyreduction in services. All we
did was we said, if you makeover, I believe, a $120, 000 was
the threshold, you get a 12% paycut. And then we did a tier 975
(09:08):
all the way.
If you made less than $50, 000,you got a 0% pay cut. Right? If
you're if you're someone thatwas making less than $50, 000,
you didn't get a pay cut. But wedid tier reductions, and then we
did something also an an unheardof, which is we put, limits on
our pension system. Right?
We actually had a definedbenefit pension system where at
(09:29):
the time, you couldtheoretically retire, this is
crazy, with over a 100% of yoursalary as a benefit for the rest
of your life. So you can retire,like, 55, okay, with a 105% a
110% of your salary for the restof your life. So you could you
know, if you live 8 to 85 or 90,right, people are living more
(09:50):
and more, you're talking about a45 year liability guaranteed by
the city, right, with cost ofliving adjustments and all kinds
of stuff. So we put we putcurves on that. We put a a limit
on what you could accumulate,never been done before.
We reduced the multipliers,never been done before. Right?
So we we got a savings, thatthat equaled our basically
(10:13):
equaled our, our income. So wereduce costs. Once we put
ourselves in a in a good fiscalplace, what I call getting back
to reality, like, fiscalreality, like, we're not living
in fiction right now.
The federal government is livingin fiction. Right? We have these
bloated budgets. And, you know,I I always love when people say,
oh, if you're a republican, areyou gonna cut entitlements? Are
(10:35):
you gonna cut military spending?
Are you gonna cut XYZ? You youyou just fill in the blank.
Right? And my answer is simple.It's not about cutting those
budgets.
Those budgets are operating onfictitious dollars. They're not
operating on a real dollar term.So do they have to be placed
back on real dollar terms? Ofcourse. Because otherwise,
they're just spending money ontheir credit card every year.
(10:57):
Right? So the first thing we didwas cut cost, then once we did
that without increasing taxes, Ithink we sent out a message to
to the community that we wantedtheir investment. Right? We were
not going to go to theirpocketbook to sustain
government. So that is whatstarted the flood of
investments, which allowed us toreduce taxes over time as our
income grew.
(11:17):
What's interesting is our budgetwent down from 600 to 500, 000,
000, right, we cut a $100, 000,000. Today, my budget is a 1,
200, 000, 000, 2. So my budgethas grown by 700, 000, 000,
right, by by 150%. And allbecause of growth, not because
of and we've reduced taxes alongthe way.
S.T. Karnick (11:33):
This is how it works for any government. If you
if if you make it so that youryour revenues are going to
increase because people aredoing more, They're creating
more goods and services withinyour realm. You're going to get
more tax money, and then you'llbe able to do more things.
Mayor Suarez (11:52):
Absolutely. When you think about, like,
homelessness, for example, I wasjust talking to the mayor of San
Diego, great guy, really smartguy. You know, a democrat run
city that is a lot like Miami,but he's got 6, 000 homeless. I
have 630. Okay?
And I wanna be the 1st majorAmerican city to have no
homeless, 0 homeless. That's mygoal. Right? So we don't have to
(12:15):
be, capitalist and lackingcompassion. On the contrary, and
by the way, we don't also thinkthat government is the arbiter
of success.
Right? We think that governmentshould facilitate success,
oftentimes should get out of theway, and sometimes be creative
as a force multiplier, but we'reno arbiter of success. The
(12:36):
success or failure of ourcommunity is based on the
ingenuity of our community, theability to risk capital, and the
ability to get things done on atimely basis, which we influence
if we're not timely with ourapprovals.
S.T. Karnick (12:49):
Well, your choice to start with with cuts to the
p, that that, is governmentemployees are receiving is
obviously a bold 1 becausethey're not gonna be happy about
that. However, it's an important1 because government employees
are paid a lot more than privatesector employees. They're
comparable employees. And as youmentioned, their their pensions
(13:13):
are incredibly far beyond what,the people who are paying the
taxes are getting if they'regetting anything. So what you
what you're doing is you're kindof reversing the priority of
things, things, saying, what isit that the taxpayers need, and
how do we get there?
Can you talk a little about howyou make that decision and then
(13:36):
how you sell that to the public?
Mayor Suarez (13:39):
I think it starts with you know, it was painful,
as you said, but it wasnecessary. And I'll tell you
this, the the there is anemployee there's there were
employees at the time thatwouldn't shake my hand, And
there isn't an employee todaythat won't give me a hug because
what they what they have nowseen is unprecedented growth,
which has gone to their bottomline as well. Because 80% of our
(14:02):
costs are employee driven costs.Right? Whether they're,
insurance, whether they'repension, or whether they're
wages, that's 80% of my budgetregardless.
So if my budget grows, guesswhich grows? Their wages, their
pension, and their right? So sothey have seen even though they
took a hit that year, which wasa significant hit, they have
seen the other side of it. Theythey have to have faith in me,
(14:25):
in my leadership, in myecosystem building abilities,
and realize that, hey, we took ahit because it was necessary.
But we're gonna we're gonna ridethe upside as well.
It's like any business. You knowwhat I mean? You you ride the
upside, your employees ride theupside. Any business that's a
sort service oriented businesslike ours, you wanna have more
compensated employees that aremotivated and that are and that
(14:46):
are are excited to do their job.Having said that, they have to
know that their leader issomeone who's gonna tell them
the truth.
And, you know, when times arenot good, you're not gonna you
know, you can't benefit all thetime. You know? So I think I
think that's part of it. Ithink, you know, we were able to
do these things without reducingservices. So our our residents
(15:06):
didn't feel it.
And we also didn't increasetaxes, so our residents didn't
feel like we were passing thebuck of making tough decisions
on their back. Right. I thinkall too often what happens is
these unions become verypowerful, these labor unions,
and they get people elected Andthe the the elected officials
don't wanna stand up to them.And so the easier thing to do,
(15:28):
ironically, is to pass the billalong to the ultimate customer
because they say, oh, we'll justspread it out over a large pool
of people, and it's it's it'smore nominal that way. But they
fail to see that people aregetting crushed, right, in the
taxes that they're paying.
When you when you think about acity like New York, right, and
you throw in there, incometaxes, state income taxes, city
(15:51):
income taxes, property taxes,sales tax. Right? When you throw
in all those taxes, not tomention ancillary taxes on a
variety of other things, you'retalking about 6 60¢ on the
dollar. Right? Like, you you I Ialways joke with my New Yorker
friends and I tell them, youknow, in your business, you have
a, you have a a you're theminority partner in your own
(16:12):
business.
Right? And and you're the silentpartner because your majority
partner is spending all yourmoney. You know what I mean? You
have no voice over your how yourmoney's being spent. So it's,
like, it's disheartening.
And at least you come to a placelike Florida where if you're in
the highest tax bracket, you payno state income tax. So you so
your government is your minorityshareholder instead of a
majority partner. Right? And,you know, we gotta find a way to
(16:37):
do more with less and and tojust stop taxing people. It just
makes it so hard to succeed inthis country.
S.T. Karnick (16:42):
The thing that you mentioned that is really, kind
of a third rail is the,government employees. They
really, have a lot of influencein any big city and even on the
state level, not so much on thenational level, but certainly in
the cities and the states. Sowhen you took over as mayor,
(17:03):
you're 2017. It's like, okay, wesit down and you sit down behind
the desk. Are you thinking, Ican do this and it'll work?
And and because of how economicprinciple because of the
economic principles that Iunderstand and so forth, we're
going to do well. And 4 yearsfrom now, people are going to be
(17:24):
saying, you know, that reallyworked. Or did you sit down and
think, if I'm not here 4 yearsfrom now, that that's okay.
Mayor Suarez (17:31):
So I my I my thinking was more like, these
are the principles that Ibelieve in. Right? I don't
believe in growing government. Ibelieve in shrinking the size of
government, which a lot ofRepublicans say but never do.
Right?
I actually have done it, and Iactually believe in it. And then
I'll be honest with you. I didnot I underestimated how
(17:52):
enormous the ecosystem impactwould be, the macroeconomic
impact would be. Part partlybecause there were other factors
that were happening thatsupercharged it. What do I mean
by that?
The SALT deduction going away.Right? That was a massive, sort
of
S.T. Karnick (18:09):
explain what the SALT is.
Mayor Suarez (18:10):
Sure. The state and local tax deduction. So in
states like Illinois, Illinois,New York, and California, you
used to be able to deduct yourstate and local taxes from your
federal income tax. In effect,low tax states like Florida were
subsidizing high tax states likeNew York, California, and
(18:30):
Illinois because they weretaking it right off the bottom
line on their on their federalincome tax. So we were all
paying for it.
Right? The, you know, Paul Ryanand and Donald Trump in the in
the the the last, tax package in2, 000, I believe, in 17 or 18
S.T. Karnick (18:46):
17. Tax Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Mayor Suarez (18:48):
Right. In that Jobs Act, they took away that
exemption. And so now everyonewho was paying state and local
taxes could not deduct that fromtheir federal income tax. So
essentially, your taxes went upby double digits, and so that
was a huge macro factor. Youknow, remote work in COVID was
another major disruptive forcebecause because that that self
(19:10):
deduction person can now say,hey.
What if I work in Miami, right,remotely? Right? And I don't
have to pay these taxes. Andthen they start working in Miami
and they realize, wait a second.Ken Griffin is here.
Wait a second. Orlando Bravo ishere. Wait a second. You know,
Blackstone just opened anoffice. Wait a second.
You know? Atlanta companies getbetter workers. Exactly. And and
(19:31):
and there was a network, right,to continue to grow companies
and scale companies that was notthere before. And then I think
the third thing was ourattitude.
You know, you have tounderstand, you have to go back
in the moment. And this is preAI and you know, which has
helped a lot of San Franciscofor reasons that we can talk
about. But, the pre AI momentwas New York saying no after
(19:53):
winning the Amazon HQ 2 prize.Right? They win the prize,
Virginia and New York, and itwas a shock for many people.
And they said no, on top ofeverything else. It's like, why
do you apply? And then say no.And then that's a $1, 000, 000,
000, 000 company that wants tocreate 50, 000 high paying jobs,
and you're basically saying wedon't want you. Right?
And then at the same time inCalifornia, you had a elected
(20:14):
official saying f Elon Musk,fill in the blank. Right? And
then he wrote message received,and he left to Austin. Right? So
you had 2 signals from 2 bigmarkets, the financial
heavyweight market of the worldand the venture heavyweight
market of the world saying, youbrought you you create $1, 000,
000, 000 companies.
You're the richest guy in theworld. We don't want you. Right?
(20:36):
And so at the same time, therewas a tweet that said, what if
we move Silicon Valley to Miami?And I responded, how can I help?
You know? So my entire idea ofhow can I help? How can I help
build this ecosystem? How can wemaximize this moment? How can we
change the landscape on things?
That, for me, was, the turningpoint, right, where we started
(20:58):
to see exponential growth. So soto answer your question, yes, I
thought lowering taxes, whichwas my philosophy, was going to
spur growth, but what we saw wasso so high in part for a variety
of other reasons that influencesdemand.
S.T. Karnick (21:14):
Yes. You have to start then with the premise that
the government honestly is thereto serve the people, but to
protect their rights to life,liberty and property. And that's
what it's for. Andredistributing wealth and things
like that are not appropriate,and they don't work.
Mayor Suarez (21:36):
I agree. They don't work. They're not
appropriate. You don't have tolook much further than 90 miles
below us, in Cuba where myparents were exiled, where a
charismatic leader said, give usall your businesses, give us all
your property, and we'll makeeverybody equal. And he did.
He made everybody equally poorand equally miserable. Right. It
it it was it was effective.Right? He he delivered on his
(21:57):
promise of equality, equalmisery, and equal poverty for
everybody.
Right? So, you know, III thinkwhen you when you want when you
look at the United States as themost prosperous nation on earth
on a almost on a per capitabasis, we're massive. So some
some some countries that aresmaller than us maybe beat us
out on a per capita basis, butin terms of a large country,
we're by far 1 of the mostprosperous per capita countries
(22:19):
in the world, all because wegive people the freedom to
explore and to, innovate and tocreate. Right? And and and then
get out of the way most of thetime in terms of government.
And like you said, government,it should be limited. It should
be limited to its competencies,which are not many, and and and
that's it. You know? Do whatyou're meant to do. Do what you
(22:40):
were created to do.
You were created, by the way, byus, for us. Right? And you you
take on this sort of third partylife where you think you're kind
of you you're there to do otherthings, like, all these all
these sociological things thatthat government was not meant to
to be, created for, as you said.And and that's when you get into
real trouble.
S.T. Karnick (23:02):
1 of the central things that government is
supposed to do is to keep thepeace, and and in particular
that that in cities, that'sobviously crime control. And
interestingly enough, in 2020,you sort of had a downward
spiral in many cities all acrossthe country, and then it was
really accelerating by then. Sothese these were national
(23:24):
trends. And you saw inparticular a large amount of
media attention seeming to, howwould you say, endorse those
trends, endorse disorder, and,and and and endorse the
reduction of policing and ofprosecuting people for crimes.
(23:47):
How did Miami respond to thosetrends?
Because as you mentioned, in2020, things really started to
get even better for
Mayor Suarez (23:54):
you. They did. And I think we were again, we're
we're counter narrative. Right?We we believe in law and order.
We we think, as a lot of usimmigrants to this country or
our parents are immigrants tothis country, what we know about
this country is the fact thatit's a country of laws. Right?
It's the fact that, you know,for there to be order, laws not
to be enforced. And you're notdoing a service to anyone by not
(24:17):
applying the law. You're notdoing a service to the people
who benefit, who who who whorequire that law to be enforced
to benefit from it, like people,for example, that wanna go shop
out of Walmart or a, you know,CVS when they get closed because
of, you know, petty theft isessentially legalized in certain
areas.
And you're not helping theperson who's doing the wrong
(24:37):
because you're not giving themthe right, lesson. The lesson is
not, you know, if you're inneed, go and just take whatever
you want. Right? The lessonshould be if you're in need, let
us find a way to help you. Youcan so you can earn a way, to to
provide for yourself, which wedo in in in abundance here in
this country.
Right? We're constantly I mean,today, I was with, I was in a
(25:00):
hotel where we were, you know,we're trying to host, like I
said, house all these, homelesspeople, right, in terms of
getting the number down from630. We did a fundraiser a
couple of weeks ago I did, andwe've housed a 150 of the 630 in
3 weeks. And I went to visitsome of them in in a hotel.
There's about 12 families in ahotel.
You know, and we're helping themfind jobs and be productive. And
(25:21):
and, you know, not all of themhave substance abuse issues.
Some of them do. We wanna helpthem as well. So, you know, it
it it's it's not about beinglawless.
Right? On the contrary, it'sit's about being compassionate.
I don't think you're beingcompassionate when you just let
people violate the law. And thatwas happening. And I also think,
frankly, you know, not to get onmy high horse about socialism,
(25:42):
but I think the the the theobjective of our enemies is for
us to destroy ourselves fromwithin.
It's us to destroy ourselves byfighting with each other. And
when they they infiltrate us byby trying to influence certain
whether it's academia or thepress, to try to reshape what is
(26:04):
good. And when things like, youknow, law and order start to
become politicized or political,Right? And you see, you know,
defund police movements, no castbail movements, you know, all
these things that areantithetical to American values,
you know that that's our enemiesat work, right? And those who
(26:26):
wanna see democracy destroyedbecause democracy is hard.
Winston Churchill once said,democracy is the worst form of
government except for all theothers. Right? It's hard. You
have to work at it. You gottafight for it.
A lot of blood has been shedhere and abroad, for our
democracy.
S.T. Karnick (26:43):
So much of this appears to be just governments
taking on much more than isappropriate for governments to
do. And there are things thatthey simply cannot do well. And
this, as you as you point out,this is very rapidly increasing
difference between what you callred and blue states and red and
blue cities. Could you addressthat? How lawmakers can create a
(27:08):
a better understanding of whatis at stake when city people
enter the voting booth, how theycan know what their true
interests are, and and maybesome ways that you've you've
tried to change that, thinking?
Mayor Suarez (27:21):
Yeah. I mean, I think it goes back to what I
said earlier that, you know,government is created to address
certain competencies, not allcompetencies. They're not
competent to handle every issue.And I'll give you an example
from the city. It's sort of amicroscopic example.
We have a piece of property thatis, a defunct, marine stadium,
(27:43):
and we wanna rebuild it. Butwe're not in the event business.
Right? We don't we don't we'renot in the event. We don't we
don't have a tax.
We don't you know, that's notwhat we do. We we clean the
garbage. We have a building andzoning department. We police our
streets, and we respond whenthere's a fire or when there is
a medical emergency. Right?
(28:03):
That's what we do. Right? We'renot in the entertainment
business. So we're gonna find aprivate sector company that is
in the entertainment business tomanage this asset. Right?
And we'll have some sort ofrevenue share with them. They're
gonna take a lot of the risk. Soit also deprased risk from our
perspective because we don'thave to take on a lot of this
risk. And so it's just beingsmart about what you're good at
(28:26):
and understanding what you'renot good at. And I think those
kinds of organizations like, Itold you, I I had no reserves in
2009, and now I have over $200,000, 000 in debt.
So imagine the government that'sthe exact opposite of the
federal government. Instead ofhaving $30, 000, 000, 000, 000
in debt, or, you know, and itruns at a deficit, we run-in an
annual surplus, and we have$200, 000, 000 in cap. Right? So
(28:51):
it's just it's crazy, the waythat things are happening at the
federal level.
S.T. Karnick (28:56):
I think what you're you're saying about the
federal government is obviouslyit's correct. And I think that
it is a real lesson to thepublic. Is that something where
people cities who may perceivethemselves as benefiting from
the federal government? And can,is there ways to, express and
(29:18):
clarify exactly how much allthis is costing? Even people who
don't pay any honestly, don'tpay any federal taxes at all?
Mayor Suarez (29:27):
Part of the problem is that these things at
the federal level, there's somuch manipulation, right,
through the Fed, monetarypolicy, and and even through
fiscal policy, right, deficitspending, that that every
regular, everyday person is notgonna feel it until there's a
crisis. We we keep thinking thatwe're on the precipice of a
(29:49):
crisis and it doesn't happen. Idon't wanna I don't want it to
happen, by the way. I don't wantit to happen because I'm afraid
of how cataclysmic it will getif the US has a financial crisis
of of the They may. Of what ofwhat could happen.
Right? I mean, it would be aworld crisis. So how do we get
our act together? I think we canget our act together. I've done
(30:11):
it.
Right? I think it's just aboutliving in the real world, and
then I think we need to put insome controls that don't
currently exist. You know, Ithink we should have a balanced
budget amendment to theconstitution, which requires us
to balance just like we have todo with states and local
governments. We're requiredconstitutionally to balance our
budget unless there's some sortof an emergency, a pandemic, a
(30:31):
war, you know, some act ofcongress that allows us to stray
from that for a temporary periodof time to address a need, I
think we should be required tobalance our budget. We need to
live in the real world.
Every single family in Americadoes it. Why shouldn't the
federal government do it? Right?And I think that would go a long
way. And then I think we need tounderstand what the size of the
(30:52):
government should be.
Right? I mean, you know, whenyou have people that are paying
50% plus in overall tax rates togovernments, that is not
American. Right? That that isbordering on socialism. Right?
When you when you are inpartnership with the government,
and the government makes moremoney off your production than
you do. It doesn't make anysense. That makes absolutely 0
(31:13):
sense. You know, and I thinkthat's something that we got to
address over the long run too.
S.T. Karnick (31:19):
That's, just very briefly, how has the state of
Florida you're in a a fairly redstate, although it wasn't quite
as red in 2019, I don't think.But you're in a fairly red
state. Does that help?
Mayor Suarez (31:33):
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we're like you
said, we're a net so so thestate makes most of its money on
state tax and not the consumertax. Mhmm. Good. And and and
when you're growing the waywe're growing in terms of
population, the migration fromnew states, you see an uptick on
that even though we haven'tchanged that tax rate.
So that that, you know, that'salso created an increase in in
(31:56):
revenue. So, you know, look, I Ithink, you know, if if the tax
cuts are somehow extended andthe self deduction continues to,
to be the law of the land, Ithink we're gonna see, states
have to make some major changes.Otherwise, there's going to be
so much in population thatthey're they're going to
(32:18):
collapse into themselves.
S.T. Karnick (32:20):
That's absolutely true. Is there anything else
you'd like to tell our listenersbefore we go?
Mayor Suarez (32:27):
You know, I have I'm optimistic. You know, I
think we're in a generationalturning of the page. My dad,
who's a great man, is 75 yearsold. He was the 1st Cuban mayor
in Miami. He came to his countryat 12.
He was the 9th of 14 kids. Got ascholarship to high school,
presidential scholarship tocollege, and 2 graduate degrees
from an Ivy League school, youknow, a quintessential American
(32:50):
story. And we love this country.And I think, you know, I think
that in this upcominggeneration, we're gonna have to
apple some big problems. I thinkthey're they're they're
defeatable.
We gotta make tough choices justlike it always is. It always
comes down to tough choices anddiscipline. Some of those, you
know, age old terms that peoplesometimes don't like to hear,
(33:12):
but are required in order tohave success. And and I think
the next generation hopefullywill do it for themselves and
their children.
S.T. Karnick (33:21):
Thank you, mayor, so much for talking with the
budget and tax news today. Howcan people contact your office?
Mayor Suarez (33:27):
You can email me at ssoares@miamigob.com.
Ssoares@miamigob.com. You canalso send me a message on my
Instagram page or on Twitter. Icheck those regularly, and I
also have a team of people thatchecks them and responds. Either
1 of those, ways you can get ahold of me.
S.T. Karnick (33:44):
Our guest today was Miami, Florida mayor Francis
Suarez. Thank you, mayor, andthank you listeners for joining
the podcast. Thanks. You're verywelcome, and I appreciate having
you here. Please leave a 5 starreview of whatever platform
you're using to listen to thispodcast.
Follow me at atstkarnick onsocial media and visit
heartlanddailynews.com for thenation's best news coverage and
(34:07):
commentary on public policyissues. This is ST Karnick for
the Heartland Institute's budgetand tax news podcast.
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