Where is Miami-Dade’s adopted budget?

Where is Miami-Dade’s adopted budget? One month after the second public hearing on the FY2026-27 budget, the county has not published it

Summary

The Miami-Dade Commission adopted the budget for fiscal year FY2026-27 on September 18, 2026. Florida law (F.S. 129.03(3)(c)) requires that the adopted budget be published on the county’s website within 30 days; as of October 19, 2026—more than a month later—the document still does not appear on the official budget page, neither at the address where it should be nor in a site-wide search. Something similar happened during the previous fiscal year (FY2025–26), which led the county itself to set an additional 60-day deadline in December 2025—a deadline that will be put to the test for the first time in mid-November 2026.

This article is for any Miami-Dade resident who pays county taxes and wants to know how that money is being spent this fiscal year, as well as for anyone who closely follows the local government’s budget transparency.

https://youtu.be/3atehmYAFsY

State law does not require that Miami-Dade’s adopted budget be kept on file with the county; it requires that it be published online, visible to any resident, within 30 days of its adoption. Counting from the date of adoption, that 30-day period has already passed according to a plain reading of the statute, and the document still does not appear on the county’s official budget website.

The Miami-Dade Commission adopted the budget for fiscal year FY2026-27 in the early morning hours of September 18, 2026. One month later, the document approved by that vote—not the one the mayor proposed in July, but the one the Commission voted on that night, with its amendments—does not appear on that page. State law requires it to be posted within 30 days; counting in calendar days, that deadline fell on October 17 or 18—a Saturday and a Sunday.

Based on a plain reading of the text, which does not distinguish between business days and weekends, the deadline had already passed as of today, Monday, October 19. If there were a rule extending the deadline to the next business day—an issue this publication was unable to resolve with certainty; see below—the deadline would expire today, and it would not yet have expired at the time of this publication.

What happened?

The Commission scheduled two public budget hearings: the first on September 3, and the second and final one on the 17th, convened by the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, Juan Fernández-Barquín, for 5:01 p.m., with eight agenda items, from A to H.

At that second hearing, the Commission voted on the five property tax rates, which remained unchanged from the previous year, and the three spending budgets: the general municipal fund (Ordinance 26-74, $2,910,035,000 in the version adopted and signed on September 17, 8-3),

the fund for the unincorporated area of UMSA (Ordinance 26-76, 10-3) and the budget for county agencies and special districts (Ordinance 26-79, 9-4). In total, eight ordinances, from 26-72 to 26-79.

The three vote counts (8-3, 10-3, 9-4) come from News Miami-Dade’s own transcript of the session’s official audio: each record’s page simply lists “P” for “Passed,” with no published numerical breakdown. The 8-3 and 10-3 results are announced verbatim in the recording; the 9-4 result is not announced that way by anyone: the transcript records “motion passes 10 to 3” and, immediately afterward (timestamp 11:21:55–11:22:03), Chairman Anthony Rodriguez corrects his own vote to “no” (“I vote no, I’m sorry… this doesn’t change the outcome”)—the 9-4 figure is this publication’s calculation based on that correction, not a number read aloud during the session.

None of the three spending ordinances provides a consolidated total for the entire county budget (each does, however, provide the total for its own fund, such as the $2,910,035,000 for the general fund): each states, in its own text, that it “incorporates the proposed budget for fiscal year FY2026-27 as amended.”

The amendment made that night—an additional $23,554 million, according to the mayor’s September 15 amendment memo—is in addition to the proposed budget from July, which the Office of Management and Budget itself estimated at $14,261,224,000: $14,261,224,000 plus $23,554,000 equals $14,284,778,000, assuming that memo includes all the changes and there were no other floor amendments not reflected in it—this publication did not verify the latter.

The website where the proposed book is hosted currently features a version dated July 27, 2026, by the county server—prior to the two September hearings—which this publication downloaded on September 18; the original version, which this publication downloaded on July 15.

On the two compared pages that contain the base figure (7 and 54), the text and numbers are identical in both versions, letter for letter: the only change is the line formatting, not the content. The fact that the server dated the replacement prior to the hearings also makes it impossible for that replacement to have incorporated the amendments from the second hearing.

The statute does not expressly require that calculation or a “report” in that specific format; it requires the publication of “the final budget,” and what this article documents is that no consolidated document with that name has been published on the page that was reviewed.

Source of the screenshot: Memo 261604, miamidade.gov/govaction. Memo from the mayor dated September 15, 2026, containing the verbatim paragraph regarding the $23,554 million in amendments.

Source: FY2026-27 Proposed Budget, Volume 1, miamidade.gov (“Message from the Mayor”) from the FY2026-27 proposed budget, Volume 1, containing the phrase “Balancing the County’s $14.261 billion operating and capital budget…”.].

The press release from the Mayor’s Office itself, titled “FY2026-27 Budget Adopted” and dated September 18, 2026, confirms this unequivocally: “The Board of County Commissioners held the first public hearing on Sept. 3. The budget was adopted at the second and final public hearing on Sept. 17.” The press release provides links to the videos of the two hearings. It does not provide a link to the adopted budget.

Source of the screenshot: press release titled “FY2026-27 Budget Adopted,” miamidade.gov.

What the Law Says

Florida Statute 129.03, subsection (3)(c), in its currently effective version (2025 edition, identical in this regard to the 2024 edition and in effect through December 31, 2026), states: “The final budget must be posted on the website within 30 days after adoption.” The statute does not say “business days” anywhere in this subsection—it says “days” without qualification. Counting from September 17, the day of the hearing, the deadline falls on October 17. Counting from the 18th, when the final votes were cast, the deadline falls on the 18th. Both dates, October 17 and 18, 2026, were a Saturday and a Sunday.

Source: Florida Statute 129.03, 2025 edition, flsenate.gov (a PDF was generated from Online Sunshine, leg.state.fl.us).

There is also an unresolved question regarding the calculation itself: Does the deadline extend to the next business day when the last day falls on a weekend, as happened this year? This publication found no general rule in Chapter 1 of the Florida Statutes (which governs the interpretation of laws) that resolves this issue for deadlines such as the one in F.S. 129.03.

There is, in fact, a related principle, although it does not pertain to this statute: a 1994 Opinion of the Florida Attorney General (AGO 94-37), concerning a different time limit also established by a statute without its own method of calculation (the 5-day notice for a judicial sale, F.S. 45.031), concluded that this time limit should be calculated using the method set forth in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.090(a): “the last day of the period so computed shall be included unless it is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, in which event the period shall run until the end of the next day which is neither a Saturday, Sunday, nor a legal holiday.”

That opinion does not specifically address F.S. 129.03, and this publication found no case law or other opinion that extends that same reasoning to the deadline for publishing budgets; nor did it find a general rule in the Florida Statutes that automatically extends any deadline that falls on a weekend in this manner (there are rules of this type for court deadlines and for certain specific chapters of the Code, but not for this section of the county budget law).

If that principle were applied here by analogy, the deadline would have expired today, Monday, October 19, not on Saturday or Sunday. Without that rule being confirmed, a plain reading of the text of F.S. 129.03(3)(c)—“days” without qualification—makes no distinction between a business day and a weekend: the deadline fell on October 17 or 18, depending on how you count it, and either interpretation places the expiration date before today. In neither interpretation has the adopted budget been published yet.

This clarification is necessary because the Florida Senate’s own website may confuse anyone who visits it today: the 2026 edition of the same statute already contains a different text, which requires that the published budget be retained “for at least 5 years” instead of 2.

That amendment is real—Chapter 2026-161 of the Florida Statutes, part of the bill known as HB 1329, signed by the governor on June 24, 2026—but it does not take effect until January 1, 2027. Today, October 19, 2026, the current requirements are 30 days to publish and 2 years to keep it online. The 30-day deadline does not change under the new law; the 2-year period will change to 5 years, but not until that date in 2027—for now, it is still 2 years.

Today, we are relaunching the county’s official budget website (miamidade.gov/global/management/budget/home.page) live. It displays three options: this year’s PROPOSED budget, last year’s ADOPTED budget, and an archive of previous budgets. This year’s adopted budget—the one currently in effect—is not on that page.

Nor was it found at a URL following the same pattern used in the previous fiscal year (miamidade.gov/resources/budget/adopted/fy2026-27/, which returns a 404 error, unlike the one from the previous cycle, which does exist), nor in a site-wide search of miamidade.gov for “2026-27” and “adopted budget,” which only returns the proposed budget and the chapters for FY2025-26.

This doesn’t cover every corner of the county’s website—we didn’t check every single page one by one—but it does rule out the two most obvious places where it should be. A resident who wants to see how their tax dollars are being spent this fiscal year—which began on October 1—can’t find that information on any of the three.

Source of the screenshot: miamidade.gov/global/management/budget/home.page, reconfirmed live on October 19, 2026.

Why It Matters

The difference between the proposed budget and the adopted budget is the difference between what the mayor requested in July and what thirteen elected commissioners decided to spend on behalf of each county resident. All three spending budgets were passed with opposition: the general county fund passed 8-3, the UMSA budget 10-3, and the budget for enterprises and special districts 9-4 (these three vote counts come from News Miami-Dade’s own transcript of the session’s audio; the official page for each record simply lists “P” for “Passed,” without a numerical breakdown—see Sources Consulted).

The document that would specify exactly what was approved following those votes—not the summary that can be reconstructed, but the consolidated text—is the one that is not available.

The law does not require that the document be stored in any internal county file; it requires that it be published on the website, visible to any resident, not just to those who work within the government. The evidence supporting this article is not that News Miami Dade does not know where the document is—this media outlet’s lack of knowledge proves nothing on its own—but rather the documented review of the official budget page and the other two avenues described above, none of which show it.

News Miami Dade does not claim that the county intentionally violated the law, nor that there is any intention to conceal the budget. The state deadline begins upon adoption; the document does not appear on the pages this publication reviewed, and the county has not explained why. It remains an open question.

There is a recent precedent, and the Commission itself has legislated on this matter. In the previous cycle, the FY2025–26 budget was adopted on September 18, 2025. Two months later, on November 21, 2025, René García —a county commissioner for District 13 since 2020 (the record identifies him by the honorific “Sen.,” a title he inherited from his eight years in the Florida Senate between 2010 and 2018, a position he no longer holds)—introduced Resolution 252354, which requested a printed copy of the adopted budget for each commissioner within 30 days, “because the Board wishes to receive the adopted budget book as soon as possible.” The Policy Council recommended it 5–0 on December 8.

On December 16, 2025, it reached the full plenary session, which amended it that same night: the version that was ultimately adopted, file 252508 (“Adopted as amended,” refers to 252354 as the original item—the page for 252354 itself states “SEE 252508 FOR FINAL VERSION AS ADOPTED”), extends both deadlines rather than maintaining them: it sets 60 days—not 30—for the adopted budget to be made available to each commissioner and the public, with a mandatory report from the mayor if the deadline is not met, and 90 days for each commissioner to receive a printed copy.

Source: Case No. 252508, miamidade.gov/govaction. Cover memo from the County Attorney for case file 252508, dated December 16, 2025, with resolution number R-1226-25 and the full title of the 60/90-day policy.

The fact that the Commission expanded its own draft rather than keeping it the same or shortening it shows that it changed the deadlines it sets for itself; it does not, on its own, prove which documents were available that day.

Another piece of information that supports this is a memo from that same agenda date —regarding a contract unrelated to the budget—which states: “The Adopted Budget Book was not finalized at the time this item was drafted. “ The memo does not say exactly when it was drafted, only that it shares the agenda date of December 16; it is not stated here that this sentence describes the status of the book on that specific day, nor that it was drafted around that date—it could have been written much earlier—only that it describes the status of the book at some unspecified point in time, up to that agenda date at the latest.

In addition, there is an official county news release titled “FY 2025-26 Budget Approved,” dated December 22, 2025— about 95 days after the vote to adopt the budget. That date refers only to the news release itself, not necessarily to the book’s initial publication date.

There is also an additional piece of information, which is more limited than it seems at first glance: the FY2025-26 budget document itself— Volume 1, which lists the actual total, $13,233,238,000—shows, according to its internal metadata (downloaded and verified today, October 19, 2026), a creation date of December 9, 2025, and a last modification date of December 17.

This does not prove that the book was absent from the site before that date: the “creation date” field of a PDF records when THAT particular file was generated, and a file may be a new export, a replacement, or a later version of a document that already existed in another format or as an earlier PDF. The only thing this data definitively confirms is that this specific PDF—the one currently linked on the county’s website—did not exist as such before December 9, 2025—nearly three months after the September vote. It does not claim that this is the date on which the adopted budget was first made public.

Source of the screenshot: FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget, Volume 1, miamidade.gov. Page 17 of the FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget, Volume 1, with an adopted total of $13,233,238,000

Source of the screenshot: internal metadata from the FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget, Volume 1. Internal metadata from the same PDF (CreationDate Dec. 9, 2025, ModDate Dec. 17, 2025), extracted using Python/pypdf.

This media outlet had already documented the date of modification (December 17) in a previous article, published on July 20, 2026, which also states that the file became available for download on December 22, 2025—the same date as the county’s official announcement. The file’s creation date, December 9, does not appear in that earlier article: it is new information, verified today and previously recorded in an internal analysis of this case dated July 10, 2026 (unpublished).

[IMAGE — upload to WordPress when publishing: images/budget-dec-25-26-22-2025.png — .]

Source of the screenshot: “FY 2025-26 Budget approved,” miamidade.gov. The county’s official website, “FY 2025-26 Budget approved,” dated December 22, 2025, featuring the “Read the FY 2026 Adopted Budget” button

That date is not measured against the 60-day deadline in the resolution, because that resolution did not yet exist when FY2025-26 was adopted: the 60/90-day policy was enacted later, on December 16. The resolution’s preamble does not explain why—it merely states that “the Board wishes to receive the adopted budget book as soon as possible”—but the policy took effect immediately following a cycle in which, according to the county’s own documents, the adopted budget book was not listed as completed until mid-December.

The FY2026-27 cycle—the one documented in this article, adopted on September 17-18, 2026—is the first to which that policy actually applies. Sixty days from that date fall around November 16–17, 2026: that is the date on which News Miami-Dade will again review whether the county met, for the first time, the deadline it set for itself in December 2025. This runs parallel to the 30-day deadline under F.S. 129.03(3)(c)—the state law, which expires between October 17 and 19 depending on how it is counted—and is independent of the county’s own policy.

The question that remains unanswered

Why, more than a month after the hearing at which it was approved, does the adopted budget for the current fiscal year not appear on the county’s official budget website? There are two deadlines: the one set by state law (F.S. 129.03(3)(c), 30 days, which expires between October 17 and 19, depending on how it’s counted) and the one the county set for itself in December 2025 (60 days, file 252508, due around November 16–17, 2026, for this cycle—the first time that policy is being put to the test).

News Miami-Dade will review each one on its due date. When the document is released, it will be compared line by line with what was proposed in July.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why hasn’t Miami-Dade County published the adopted FY2026-27 budget yet?

This media outlet does not know. The county has not explained the delay. What can be verified is that the law gave them 30 days from the date of adoption (September 17–18) and that, more than a month later, the document does not appear on the official budget website or on the other two channels reviewed.

What does Florida law say about publishing a county’s adopted budget?

Florida Statute 129.03(3)(c) requires that the final budget be posted on the website within 30 days of its adoption and remain online for at least 2 years (this will increase to 5 years on January 1, 2027, under a law that has already been signed).

What is Miami-Dade’s adopted budget for fiscal year FY2026-27?

There is still no consolidated figure in an official document. The proposed July budget put the total at $14,261,224,000, and the Commission approved $23.554 million in amendments on September 15; adding these together yields $14,284,778,000, but that is a calculation made by this publication, not a figure released by the county.

Has this happened before in Miami-Dade?

There is indeed a precedent: the budget adopted for the previous fiscal year (FY2025-26) was also not marked as finalized by mid-December 2025, nearly three months after its adoption. That led the Commission to set its own 60-day deadline in December 2025—separate from the one in state law—which is being put to the test for the first time in this fiscal year.

What do budget transparency laws generally require of local governments?

It varies by state, but the general goal is for any resident to be able to verify—without having to formally request it—how public funds are spent once the budget has been approved. Deadlines, penalties for noncompliance, and disclosure requirements vary from one jurisdiction to another.

When is News Miami-Dade going to review this again?

Around November 16–17, 2026, when the 60-day deadline that the county set for itself in December 2025 for this budget cycle expires.

Timeline

Sources consulted.

Level 1 (officers)

1. Miami-Dade County, Board of County Commissioners, Resolution R-627-26, Matter 261308 (“Resolution Setting the Date, Time, and Location of the Fiscal Year 2026–27 Proposed Public Budget Hearings”), adopted July 21, 2026, 12-0: sets 5:01 p.m. on September 3 and 17, 2026, as the first and second hearings. Local copy with its own source reference in 2-SOURCES/01-county/miami-dade/01-bcc/legislative-records/matters/261308/_WHERE-IT-CAME-FROM.md.
2. Miami-Dade County, Ordinance 26-74, Matter 261812 (adopted and sealed version; 261601 was the first reading, with a different amount), county general fund budget, $2,910,035,000, adopted September 17, 2026, 8-3. The official record page shows only “P” (Passed), with no numerical breakdown; the 8-3 vote comes from News Miami-Dade’s own transcription of the session’s audio, not verified against the Clerk’s certified minutes. Transcript and audio: 2-SOURCES/01-county/miami-dade/01-bcc/meetings/2026-09-17_meeting_fv_Second-Public-Budget-Hearing/2026-09-17-BCC-BUDGET-1-TRANSCRIPT-EN.srt, with the URL of the Granicus clip in the _WHERE-IT-COMES-FROM.md file in that same folder. HTML page of the file archived with SHA hash-256 b31097b6c62ce89c8059ac8d51fb58a20b1901524b22535a861abb38daf0567f in sources/01-primarias/precedent-adopted-late-2025-26-budget/ (there is no direct downloadable PDF for this document).
3. Miami-Dade County, Ordinance 26-76, Matter 261813 (adopted version; 261602 was the first reading), UMSA budget, adopted September 17, 2026, 10-3 (same vote verification status as above).
4. Miami-Dade County, Ordinance 26-79, matter 261814 (adopted version; 261603 was the first reading), budgets for enterprises, special districts, and the salary plan, adopted September 17, 2026, 9-4. Same verification status as above, with one specific detail: the transcript records “motion passes 10 to 3,” and immediately afterward (11:21:55–11:22:03), Chairman Anthony Rodriguez corrects his vote to “no” without changing the result—the 9-4 figure is News Miami-Dade’s calculation based on that correction, not a figure announced as such during the session.
5. Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller Juan Fernández-Barquín, Public Notice of the Second Budget Hearing for FY2026-27, September 17, 2026, 5:01 p.m., eight items from A through H (five regarding property taxes, three regarding the budget). Local copy: 2-FUENTES/01-county/miami-dade/01-bcc/meetings/2026-09-17_meeting_fv_Second-Public-Budget-Hearing/FY2026-27_public-notice_county_second-budget-hearing-2026-09-17.pdf.
6. Miami-Dade County, File No. 252422 (Corrections and Rehabilitation Department, Conducted Energy Weapons contract, not related to the budget), memo dated December 16, 2025: “The Adopted Budget Book had not been finalized at the time this item was drafted.”
7. Miami-Dade County, Office of the Mayor, memo titled “Information for the Second Budget Hearing,” September 15, 2026, matter 261604.
8. Miami-Dade County, Office of Management and Budget, FY2026-27 Proposed Budget and Multi-Year Capital Plan, Volume 1, page 7 (“Message from the Mayor”): “Balancing the County’s $14.261 billion operating and capital budget…”. The exact figure, $14,261,224,000 (operating $9,021,676,000 + capital $5,239,548,000), is broken down on page 54 of the same document. Full PDF archived at 2-SOURCES/01-county/miami-dade/budgets/FY2026-27/FY2026-27_proposed-budget_county_fy2026-27-proposed-vol-1_2026-09-18.pdf, SHA-256 hash e34859e4ea4528dd114d8bb572c92821087102b507eedd7779b1fc35ffcaf515.
9. Miami-Dade County, Office of the Mayor, press release titled “2026-27 Budget Adopted, “ dated September 18, 2026, reconfirmed live on October 19, 2026, and via a screenshot provided by the editor.
10. Miami-Dade County, official budget page, verified live on October 19, 2026, and via a screenshot taken by the editor showing the system clock at 12:48 p.m.
11. State of Florida, Florida Statute 129.03, 2025 edition (currently in effect; the text is identical to the 2024 edition in this subsection), subsection (3)(c). By contrast, the 2026 edition, Chapter 2026-161, Florida Statutes (HB 1329, signed June 24, 2026), effective January 1, 2027.
12. Florida Attorney General’s Office, Opinion AGO 94-37, issued on April 26, 1994, to J. K. “Buddy” Irby, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Alachua County: regarding F.S. 45.031(1) (5-day notice for judicial sale), concludes that this period is calculated in accordance with Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.090(a), which extends the deadline to the next business day when the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday. Full text read; archived with SHA-256 hash 09875e5ade80d89c68d53e347676f87401b00e41ed4553520f85addbf746df60 in sources/01-primarias/precedent-late-adoption-of-the-2025-26-budget/.
13. Miami-Dade County, File No. 252508, “Adopted as amended” on December 16, 2025, final version of the resolution introduced as No. 252354: sets a 60-day deadline for making the adopted budget available to commissioners and the public (with a mandatory report if this deadline is not met) and a 90-day deadline for providing a printed copy to each commissioner—as stated verbatim on the official record page.
14. Miami-Dade County, legislative file 252354, version INTRODUCED on November 21, 2025 (not the adopted version—the bill’s own page states “SEE 252508 FOR FINAL VERSION AS ADOPTED”), Prime Sponsor René García, Commissioner for District 13 (identified in the document itself as “Sen. René García,” an honorary title from his 2010–2018 tenure in the Florida Senate; he has served as a county commissioner since 2020): requested that a printed copy of the adopted budget be provided to each commissioner within 30 days; amended and adopted as Record 252508 (see previous entry).
15. Miami-Dade County, Office of Management and Budget, official press release “FY 2025-26 Budget Approved, “ dated December 22, 2025.
16. Miami-Dade County, Office of Management and Budget, FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget, Volume 1 ($13,233,238,000, page 17), downloaded and verified online on October 19, 2026: internal PDF metadata, CreationDate December 9, 2025, ModDate December 17, 2025 (Adobe PDF Library 18.0); SHA-256 hash stored in sources/01-primary/_WHERE-IT-COMES-FROM.md.
17. Miami-Dade County, Board of County Commissioners, Agenda 5449, full commission meeting of December 16, 2025, Item 11A5 (Case No. 252508/252354).
18. Miami-Dade County, matter 261531, one of the eight items (261531–261538) on the agenda for the first FY2026–27 budget hearing, September 3, 2026; local copy with watermark in sources/01-primary/_WHERE-IT-COMES-FROM.md.

Level 2 (intermediate)

1. News Miami Dade, “Miami-Dade FY2025-26 Budget: From $12.93 to $13.23 Billion—Never Officially Presented to the Public, ” published July 20, 2026: a previous article by this publication on the same topic, which notes that the budget adopted on December 22, 2025, is available for download and cites the date of the PDF’s last modification (December 17)—not the creation date (December 9), which is a detail from this article, not from that piece.

Disclaimer: News Miami-Dade cites the original sources of public hearings, Legistar documents, memos from the County Attorney’s Office, recommendations from staff at the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, Granicus archives, and records from the Florida Division of Elections and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics. This article references government materials published by the relevant jurisdiction and direct quotes from public hearings streamed by Granicus. Every factual statement is grounded in its identifiable primary source. Statements of position are cited with the source and verbatim when available.

Stay up to date with the latest news!

The budget currently in effect for this fiscal year has not yet been posted on the county’s website, even though the law gave the county 30 days to publish it. At News Miami-Dade, we track your public money dollar by dollar: we’ll check this same page again on November 16–17, 2026, when the 60-day deadline that the county set for itself in December 2025 expires. Don’t miss a single detail. 👉 Click here!

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