Hillsborough school board sues county commission over teacher pay referendum ballot measure delay
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. - The Hillsborough County school district filed a lawsuit against the Hillsborough County Commission on Tuesday, minutes after the school board voted to allow Superintendent Van Ayres to take legal action to get the district's teacher pay referendum on the November ballot.
Following the board's 4-3 vote during an emergency meeting, the district immediately took legal action, asking a judge to force the county commission to put the measure up for a countywide vote.
Board members Nadia Combs, Henry Washington, Lynn Gray and Jessica Vaughn voted to allow school district attorneys to seek legal action to ensure the millage referendum is on the Nov. 5 ballot, while Patti Rendon, Karen Perez and Stacy A. Hahn voted no.
READ: Hillsborough County Commission blocks tax increasing pay for teachers: 'Unprecedented action'
"The bottom line is we have to get the resolved by August 20th," Ayres said, referring to the date at which the referendum has to be submitted to the county's Supervisor of Elections.
The board called the emergency meeting in response to the commission's surprising decision to delay putting the referendum on a ballot until November 2026.
The measure would let voters decide whether to increase property taxes by one millage. The revenue would be used to raise teacher and staff salaries. This comes as the district deals with more than 500 teacher vacancies and district leaders worry they will continue to lose educators to surrounding counties that have passed similar measures and can pay teachers more money.
"I don't feel like I need permission from the county commission to do what's right for the students of Hillsborough County," Ayres told the board during the meeting.
READ: Hillsborough County commissioners worry voters may balk at multiple tax proposals
The lawsuit centers around a state law that allows school boards to direct county commissions to include a measure such as this on a ballot.
Four commissioners, however, believe the statute gives them the ability to choose when the referendum would appear, leading to the commission delaying the measure two years.
Commissioners Ken Hagan, Christine Miller, Donna Cameron Cepeda, and Joshua Wostal voted to change the referendum date. Members Pat Kemp, Harry Cohen and Gwen Myers supported giving residents the chance to vote on the tax.
"The right thing to do is to put it in front of the voters at the time when the elected school board asked us to do it," argued Cohen.
Although Ayres believes the commission's decision violates state law, Commissioner Josh Wostal, who proposed the delay, said this is about helping families who are already stretched too thin.
"I will not take positions that further price them out of their homes and make them more reliant on government in their sunset years," Wostal said, adding he believes the law is on the commission's side. "There's precedence that empowers the county commissioners to be in charge of deciding the timing of when it does go to the ballot."
Ayres says Hillsborough’s teachers can’t wait another two years for a potential salary increase, given how low pay in Hillsborough County is compared to neighboring districts, nearly all of which have voter-approved millages in place to help boost teacher salaries.
"This millage referendum exists in Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, say, in Sarasota, Manatee," said Ayres. "It is hard for Hillsborough County Public Schools to compete for new teachers when a starting salary for us is $48,000 and when districts around us are at $55,000, $57,000. This number leads to our vacancies. If you have a choice of where you want to teach, if I'm 23 years old, $7,000 is a lot of money."
Meanwhile, commissioners voted in favor of allowing a sales tax measure, the renewal of the 30-year Community Investment Tax (CIT), to appear on the November ballot.
Adding insult to injury, county commissioners this year decreased the amount of CIT funding schools will receive from 25% to 5%. CIT funds for education are earmarked for capital projects only and may not be used for teacher salaries.
At least two board members were willing to side with the commissioners and wait until 2026. The majority, on the other hand, agreed with Ayres. A proposal to put a $50,000 cap on legal fees for the district failed.
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