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Miami-Dade County is described as a "two-tier federation", in which municipal responsibilities are split between the lower-tier incorporated cities (e.g. Miami, Hialeah, Miami Beach, etc) and the upper-tier county (i.e. Miami-Dade); in unincorporated areas the county does both.

I'm not too familiar with Florida law, but doesn't this sound like any other county system? From what I've read on how the other counties in Florida work, it's described in basically the same way (i.e. the county does some things and the cities/towns do others). In articles about this system it's often compared to a consolidated city-county, but I don't see many similarities as with that there's only one municipal government which does everything for the entire county.

Miami-Dade does have a special constitutional amendment which created this federation system, so there is certainly some difference. However, I can't really find a comparison on what exactly makes Miami-Dade special in regards to the rest of Florida.

FumoUdon
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The cities in Miami-Dade derive their power from the county charter, not directly from the state constitution or law. Therefore, it's closer to a consolidated city-county than in other counties and procedures and their operation differs from other cities in Florida. For example, new cities are not allowed to have their own fire service, libraries or trash (Miami-Dade Charter Sec. 6.05 (7)).

Florida Constitution Art. VIII, Section 6 (f), gives municipality powers to the Dade County government. Then, the Miami-Dade Charter Article 6 then gives those municipalities certain powers. Without this arrangement, the FL constitution Art. VIII, Section 2 and relevant state law would apply.

user71659
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