Miami Advances $450 Million Public-Safety Bond to Voters
Miami voters will decide Aug. 18 whether to authorize up to $450 million in general-obligation bonds for repairs, modernization and rebuilding of aging police headquarters and fire-rescue facilities.
The Miami City Commission approved placing the Safe and Ready Miami bond proposal on the ballot July 9. That action moves the financing question to the City of Miami’s special referendum election, but it does not approve the borrowing itself. The proposal will require voter approval before the city could proceed with the borrowing authority described in the measure.
What the bond would cover
The city’s stated purpose is to address aging facilities used by the Miami Police Department and Miami Fire-Rescue. The official summary describes a broad capital program involving repairs, modernization and rebuilding.
The facilities are tied to police and fire-rescue operations, so the referendum puts a public-safety infrastructure question before residents alongside the question of how the city should finance that work. The approved material does not identify individual facility projects, set final construction schedules or establish the ultimate cost of each project.
The proposed borrowing authority is “up to” $450 million. That figure is a maximum authorization described in the ballot proposal, not a statement that voters have approved $450 million or that the city has made the money available for construction.
What is known about the tax impact
The city says the proposal would not increase the current debt millage rate. That is the city’s stated position on the measure’s effect on the debt-tax rate.
The official notice in the approved source material does not include a full debt-service analysis. As a result, the ballot placement provides the city’s position on the millage rate but does not, by itself, give residents a complete accounting of future borrowing costs. The sources also do not establish the final financing terms, project-by-project costs or the timing of construction.
Those distinctions matter because the commission’s action was a decision about ballot placement, not final authorization of construction spending. Until voters decide the question, the Safe and Ready Miami measure remains a proposal for borrowing authority.
Election date and voter deadline
The referendum is scheduled for the Aug. 18, 2026, City of Miami special election. The city’s election page lists an official sample ballot and election-related resolutions for the contest, giving voters the formal election materials associated with the measure.
Miami lists July 20, 2026, as the voter-registration deadline for the election. Residents who need to register will therefore have a deadline nearly a month before the referendum.
The next formal step is the election itself. The commission’s July 9 vote placed the public-safety bond question before Miami voters; it did not make the proposed $450 million available, guarantee that every repair or rebuilding project will proceed, or establish a final construction timetable.
The vote will determine whether the city receives the proposed authority to finance the capital program. Until then, the confirmed development is that Miami has advanced the question to the ballot, with the city describing the proposal as a way to repair, modernize and rebuild police and fire-rescue facilities without increasing the current debt millage rate.
Sources
- Miami City Commission Approves Safe and Ready Miami Bond, City of Miami
- 2026 City of Miami Special Election — August 18, 2026, City of Miami
- Miami commission advances mayor’s $450M bond to November, Miami Herald
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