{"id":416435,"date":"2026-10-02T05:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T05:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/416435\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T05:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T05:06:12","slug":"miami-dade-library-supporters-warn-floridas-amendment-3-could-cut-nearly-20-of-the-systems-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/416435\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami-Dade library supporters warn Florida’s Amendment 3 could cut nearly 20% of the system’s budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amendment 3 <\/a>could cut almost 20% of Miami-Dade County’s library budget, according to the executive director of Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library, who warned it would hurt free services that residents rely on.<\/p>\n

If passed, the amendment would reduce the taxable value<\/a>\u00a0of primary homes in Florida by $150,000 in 2027 and by $250,000 in 2028.<\/p>\n

“It would be a tsunami for the system,” said Ava Habif, the group’s executive director.<\/p>\n

Habif said the money<\/a>\u00a0helps fund free services at the libraries, including tutoring, language lessons, social workers, Wi-Fi, and citizenship preparation courses.<\/p>\n

“They just could not maintain that level of service with a 20 percent cut if you imagine the infrastructure that the system and the people that it has and the breadth of services that it provides,” Habif said.<\/p>\n

Habif said county libraries also serve as cooling centers during heat waves and as polling sites on Election Day. She said she does not think a 20% loss in funding could be made up through donations alone.<\/p>\n

Nour Kawa, who is working on her Ph.D., said she could study at her university library but prefers the Miami-Dade<\/a> Public Library branch in Coral Gables.<\/p>\n

“They’ve given me space. They’ve allowed me to concentrate and focus on what I’m writing about, and it’s accelerated my learning and my development,” Kawa said.<\/p>\n

Kawa said she is worried about what the amendment could mean for the county library system.<\/p>\n

“I think the library is a vital piece of the communal space,” Kawa said.<\/p>\n

Others see benefits in the measure. Maria Ason said Amendment 3 could mean savings on housing costs.<\/p>\n

“It will be of benefit one way or another, whether it’s big or small,” Ason said.<\/p>\n

Ason said she believes the library could still function through other funding methods, such as donations or subscriptions.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amendment 3 could cut almost 20% of Miami-Dade County’s library budget, according to the executive director of Friends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15586,10428,113,123,125,124,1064,7074,807,8527],"class_list":["post-416435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-books","tag-coral-gables","tag-education","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-dade","tag-property-taxes","tag-south-florida","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}