FYI Miami: May 4, 2023

Bellow are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

COMPENSATION COSTS RISE FASTER: The Miami region topped the nation in percentage increase in compensation costs for private employees in the year ended in March, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week, with a 6.1% rise over the seven counties. For wages and salaries alone, the 6% increase in the Miami area was second-highest in the nation behind Philadelphia’s 6.5%. Total compensation cost increases in the Miami region over the past years show a significant rise, up 2.5% in the year ending in March 2019 to 1.9% in the same period of 2020, 3.4% in 2021, 4.3% in 2022 and now 6.1%. For the nation as a whole, in the year ended in March total compensation costs rose 4.8% and wages rose 5.1%, the bureau reported.

TRANSITWAY ENHANCEMENTS: The 30 transit station parking lots along the 20-mile-long SouthDade Transitway will get new drop-off and pick-up locations and other enhancements under a grant agreement that county commissioners approved in a 12-1 vote. The agreement allows the county to accept $625,000 from the Florida Department of Transportation for the enhancements in preparation for the Transitway’s expected use in the first half of next year. The other $625,000 comes from the county’s transportation surtax funds, an allocation that is subject to a vote later by the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, which oversees the tax proceeds. The sole no vote came from Commissioner Kionne McGhee, who has opposed the planned use of buses instead of rail service along the 20-mile route.

MOTORING SOUTH: Construction continues on the South Dade Transitway with aims of starting bus trips in the second quarter of next year, Maria Perdomo, assistant director of program management in the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last week. The cost of the South Dade transit corridor is estimated still at $300 million, she said, far less per mile than other Smart Plan fast transit corridors because the Transitway project is entirely at grade, with no need to rise over intersections. Canopies of 14 stations along the Transitway are being worked on, she said, and vestibule work has started in some of them.

TOUGHER AMENDMENT ROUTE: The Florida House has backed a measure that would ask voters in 2024 to make it harder to change the state Constitution. The House voted 74-35 to approve the measure, which seeks to require approval from 66.67% of voters to amend the Constitution, up from the current 60%.