🤩 Happy Wednesday!

🌧️ Today's weather: Showers and thunderstorms likely, with a high of 86 and a low of 77.

🎼 Sounds like: "Como Un Pájaro" by Silvana Estrada, who is performing at the Miami Beach Bandshell Sunday.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Renee Arnold and Michelle Kempner!

Today's newsletter is 1,019 words — a 4-minute read.

Miami Beach commissioners today are set to consider a proposal that would maintain funding for LGBTQ-related programming in the 2027 budget.

Why it matters: Initial budget discussions included slashing up to $376,000 for related programming and services in an effort to comply with state law.

• Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, the law prohibits counties and municipalities from funding or promoting initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
• It goes into effect Jan. 1.

The latest: An addendum put forward by Commissioner Alex Fernandez on Monday would maintain funding for the city's LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce and the annual Miami Beach Pride event through the end of 2026 — a move advocacy organizations have so far applauded.

• It also would allow the city attorney to "seek guidance" on whether the city can enter contracts for events that occur in the new year.

Between the lines: The proposed budget still includes cuts to Pridelines, Miami's LGBTQ Community Center and Miami Beach Police Department's outreach programs.

Yes, but: Officials recently directed Pridelines to resubmit its grant proposal and community organizations are collaborating on ways to preserve the police department's funding.

What they're saying: The law is "poorly written" with "significant ambiguity that is being forced on us," Fernandez, the commission's only openly gay member, told Axios in an email.

• Instead of "prematurely cutting funding," he looked to other local governments, including Miami-Dade, that maintained funding for organizations that could be impacted by the law, he said.

The other side: Mayor Steve Meiner and Commissioner David Suarez, the only commissioner who's not a sponsor for the addendum, did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

Zoom in: Equality Florida's Brandon Wolf told Axios he wants municipalities to look at individual line items and what those dollars are being used for.

• Take Pridelines: Just because the organization is asking for money "doesn't mean the program or service it's providing is against the law," he said.
• "It'll take some creativity [from officials] to support their constituents in the wake of the law."

The bottom line: The addendum is a "great short-term solution," Miles Davis of SAVE Inc., Florida's oldest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, told Axios.

• "Eventually we're going to have to make a lot more hard decisions once the law goes into effect."

What's next: Advocacy organizations are encouraging constituents to attend tonight's budget hearing (5pm) in person or via Zoom to speak in support of the addendum.

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Here's the latest development news from the 305.

🏗️ Bugatti is entering Miami's branded condo market with a 60-story tower along the Miami River in Brickell, the Real Deal reported.

• The French car maker is partnering with Prosper Group and Versluys Group to build the 181-unit tower.

🤩 Kush Wynwood is reopening after two years.

• The beloved Wynwood restaurant will anchor Kush Korner, a new 7,500-square-foot mixed-use project by owner Matt Kushner, according to a news release.
• Kush Wynwood will be more than just a restaurant; the 1920s building will feature 10 workforce studios, a cocktail bar and tattoo studio, and serve as "an unofficial art gallery," with more than 25 pieces from 20 artists, per the release.

🏞️ City of Miami officials on Thursday are considering a plan that would direct up to $10 million in funding for improvements to Margaret Pace Park in Edgewater, part of a long-planned waterfront project, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

• If approved, the first phase of the project would target the park's resilience to coastal conditions: seawall and shoreline stabilization, irrigation improvements and a kayak launch, among other improvements.
• The park's walkways would also be improved.

🙌 University of Miami ranked No. 55, the highest among South Florida schools, on U.S. News & World Report's national ranking of colleges. (South Florida Business Journal)

🤑 Miami-Dade County Public Schools' controversial school bus camera ticketing program issued more than 7,900 citations between May 18 and the last day of school on June 4. (The Miami Herald)

• At $225 each, the number of citations totaled nearly $1.8 million.

📉 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has lost more than 36% of its staff nationwide in the last two years, with job losses impacting at least 11 national wildlife refuges in Florida. (Tampa Bay Times)

• In Florida, jobs lost range from budget analysts and maintenance workers to grant writers and human resources employees.

The odds of a child or teen being uninsured can vary a lot depending on where they live and their ethnicity, according to new census data.

Why it matters: The rate of uninsured children has been generally ticking upward since the end of the pandemic, and advocates and policy experts expect the trend to continue due to Medicaid policy changes from last year's congressional budget law.

• Lack of health insurance increases the odds of missed health screenings, vaccinations and early interventions when kids get sick.

Driving the news: Census data for 2025 released on Tuesday shows that children's health coverage is a geographic patchwork, with the uninsured population rising in the West and stubbornly high in Southern states.

• 5.8% of children under the age of 19 — about 4.4 million — did not have health insurance. That's down slightly from 2024.
• The uninsured rate was 8% in the South. And it rose 1.1% year-over-year in Western states, to 5.5%.
• Kids were likeliest to be insured in the Northeast, where the uninsured rate was 2.6%.

Between the lines: The differences can partly be explained by the fact that fewer Southern states have opted into the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

• Many also have stricter eligibility requirements for the nonexpansion population.

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🙏 Martin is recovering from a cold.

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This newsletter was edited by Jeff Weiner.