The Florida Supreme Court has struck down Hillsborough County’s voter-approved one-cent transportation sales tax.
In a ruling posted Thursday, justices declared that restrictions on how and where the revenue from the 2018 tax could be spent were unconstitutional.
The sticking point was a charter amendment that dictated how local agencies could spend their share of the money, spelling out how much could pay for congestion, bus routes, road safety, bike and pedestrian efforts and other projects. By structuring the measure that way, supporters illegally usurped power from the county commission, which Florida state law says has the sole responsibility of deciding how the money is spent.
“Because it cannot reasonably be said that the voters would have approved the tax without the accompanying spending plan, we must strike the charter amendment in its entirety,” Justice Charles Canady wrote in the opinion. He went on to call the attempt to restrict how the money could be spent “an elaborate scheme.”
Justices Ricky Polston, Alan Lawson and Carlos Muñiz supported the decision. Justice Jorge Labarga was the lone dissenter.
The ruling came two years after Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White filed a lawsuit challenging the tax. White had said at the time that he hoped the case would be resolved within a month.
The sales tax took effect Jan. 1, 2019, and generated more than $472 million while the case made its way through the court system.
Already questions are circulating over what will happen to the money that’s been collected, when businesses will stop collecting the tax and when county commissioners might bring a replacement referendum before voters again.
For now, many in the community are still processing the news, which came more than a year after justices heard oral arguments in Tallahassee.
A transportation sales tax approved by voters was expected to boost service by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority.
“This ruling confirms we don’t live in a lawless society and politics can’t trump the Florida constitution,” said former Florida Senator Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, who supported the lawsuit and was in the courtroom for oral arguments last February.
Other elected leaders and community members were reeling from the news Thursday.
Hillsborough County Commission Chair Pat Kemp said she was “devastated.” Tampa Bay Partnership CEO Rick Homans called the ruling “a slap in the face” to the residents of Hillsborough County.
“Today’s infamous ruling is an insult to Hillsborough County voters that will worsen our transportation crisis,” Tyler Hudson, co-chairman of the group that backed the tax, All for Transportation. “As Hillsborough County continues to grow, the court’s ruling deprives residents of the necessary transportation investment that they voted for two years ago.”
“It’s a terrible blow to public safety,” said Tampa City Council chairman Luis Viera, “and it’s a terrible blow for our community to be able to have self-determination involving transportation and mass transit.”
The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit authority, which was looking forward to boosting bus service with proceeds from the tax, issued a statement saying it will continue doing the best it can.
“We continue to do more with less – as one of the most underfunded transit systems per capita in the country,” the agency said. “One thing that is clear, Hillsborough County voters showed overwhelming support for alternative transportation solutions.”
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor cited research showing transit improvements would reduce poverty and said the ruling will hurt efforts to land more federal investment in local transportation.
“It’s a true setback for all of us who call the Tampa Bay area home,” said Castor, a Tampa Democrat, “and what happens when Republicans have held the levers of power too long in a state that deserves better.”
Supporters of the tax were already rallying Thursday to place a replacement measure on the 2022 ballot.
Viera said he would ask City Council members Thursday to join with the Hillsborough County Commission and begin efforts to place a new sales tax proposal on the ballot by 2022.
Jeff Vinik, owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a developer of Water Street Tampa and a major contributor to All for Transportation, said he was “deeply disappointed” in the ruling but urged leaders to press forward with a replacement referendum.
“While today’s court ruling is a setback, we must look ahead and forge a new path forward for 2022,” Vinik said. “This investment is too important to the future of our community to delay any further.”
Said Kemp, “I feel there will be very strong support for this kind of initiative with the board we have now, thank goodness.”
She was disappointed when the board last year, lead by Les Miller, voted to put off any efforts in 2020 in light of uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic.
As for what happens to the money already collected from those who are paying the tax, Kemp said she’s waiting to hear more guidance from the county attorney and state officials. Perhaps it will be left up to the circuit judge who initially ruled on the tax to decide, she said.
One consideration, Kemp said: Perhaps taxpayers will get a chance to file a request for reimbursement and the remainder of the money will be sent back to the county for commissioners to spend.
“That money certainly should be distributed to us once claims are made, and maybe it will tie us over to 2022,” She said. “That would make the most sense to me… But I don’t know, and no one does.”
Lee laughed when a reporter told him the justices did not determine how the money should be spent in ther 25-page opinion.
“They probably took a look at it and thought, ‘Maybe the Florida Department of Revenue should be the one that figures that out,’” Lee said.
The Tampa Bay Times called and emailed the department but had not received a response early Thursday afternoon.
Lee foresees the tax revenues being returned to those who make a claim with the remaining money distributed by the state.
Hudson with All for Transportation wants to see the money spent on transportation in a Hillsborough County, as voters intended.
“That money belongs to the community and it needs to be put in service,” he said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The tax measure was placed on the ballot through a signature drive by All For Transportation, a citizens group with backing from the business community, after county commissioners declined year after year to draft their own referendum.
Fifty-seven percent of Hillsborough voters said yes to the sales tax increase in November 2018. The legal battle began soon after.
The plan, as outlined in the required amendment to the county charter, was to send 45 percent of the revenue to the county’s transit authority. The rest would be divided between the county and the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City. The Metropolitan Planning Organization would use 1 percent of revenue for transportation planning and oversight.
White filed his suit in December 2018, arguing that the referendum usurped power from the County Commission and was unconstitutional. In June 2019, a circuit judge ruled that the tax would stay in place but it would be up to commissioners to decide how the money is spent.
The case reached the high court on an appeal, supported by the state Senate and House of Representatives. Five Supreme Court justices hear oral arguments in February 2020, asking dozens of questions to determine whether to uphold the tax.