Judge rejects Hillsborough County's one-cent tax referendum, nullifying measure on November ballot
TAMPA, Fla. - Hillsborough County voters will not get to vote on a transportation tax on the November ballot. A judge rejected the one-cent tax referendum on the November ballot, nullifying the measure.
This comes as absentee and mail-in ballots are starting to go out to voters. The measure is dead after the judge's ruling, but Hillsborough County can still appeal, but there isn't a lot of time to do so.
The judge heard arguments during a two and a half hour hearing Monday afternoon. The lawsuit was filed by Karen Jaroch, a former vice chair of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Board.
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"Rather than asking a simple question, shall we levy a one percent transportation sales tax, they put in extra language to lure voters to vote for it," said Jaroch.
She argued the referendum was too ambiguous. She said it was attempting to mislead voters into thinking their taxes would be for certain types of projects, when in reality, it would be up to the county commissioner to decide.
That would have included road construction, maintenance and widening projects.
"We still have a predicament. We still have some transportation needs," said Jaroch. "So it’s really a debate about the priorities of the county, and for that I fault many of the county commissioners who voted in this illegal tax."
"All for Transportation," the group that crafted the measure, said the revenue would have gone a long way to address a backlog of road projects. Hillsborough voters passed a similar referendum in 2018, but that tax was struck down as being unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court because it identified specific projects.
Monday, the judge sided with Jaroch's motion, effectively ending a second attempt by the county at getting this tax passed.
In response to the judge's ruling, "All for Transportation's" co-founder Tyler Hudson said:
"The only losers today are the residents of Hillsborough County who have again had their opportunity to fix our broken transportation system delayed. We will continue to pay the high price of doing nothing and the call for action will only grow louder."
Hillsborough County Commissioner Gwen Myers sent the following statement on the ruling:
"This urgent issue belongs in the hands of the voters. I support holding an emergency meeting of the County Commission and I have asked the county staff to present all possible legal alternatives to keep this vital issue on the November 8 ballot."
This is the second time that the transportation tax has gone down because of court rulings. In, 2018 57% of Hillsborough voters approved the penny sales tax. In 2021, the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional because the referendum specified how the money should be spent – something that should be determined by the county commissioners.
By that point, Hillsborough County had already collected $562 million.
"All for Transportation" started collecting signatures in support of a second try after that 2021 ruling. They got enough signatures and the county commission placed in on the ballot for this November's election.
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Many voters have already placed early votes, but unless the judge's ruling is somehow reversed, those votes will not count.
The judge expects to release the order to nullify the referendum later this week. The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office said it will put up notices in privacy booths at voting locations and in vote by mail packets about the court invalidating the referendum.