"We’re in very challenging budgetary times, and it’s not just lawn mowing."

Of all the ways to track Miami-Dade’s budget woes, a yardstick offers the best measure at the county park in Biscayne Shores.

The grass there this week neared the two-foot mark, thanks to a rainy summer colliding with Miami-Dade’s new austerity mowing program. Slated to shave about $2 million off the county’s $6 billion budget, the strategy has parks, median strips and roadsides waiting up to eight weeks longer for visits by tax-funded mowing squads.

The result may be the most visible evidence yet of the county’s current budget squeeze, with shaggy grass drawing complaints throughout Miami-Dade.

Read more at the Miami Herald.