In an opinion, sc19-1250, issued today in Emerson v. Hillsborough County Florida, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a citizens’ initiative establishing a 0ne cent transportation tax, expected to raise 15 billion dollars over 30 years, was unconstitutional and must be struck.
[W]e consider the constitutional validity of an amendment to the Hillsborough County Charter that was adopted in an initiative election. Through that charter amendment the voters approved both a
transportation surtax and elaborate directives for allocating the tax proceeds. But the spending directives are unconstitutional in that they conflict with a state law that gives the county commission the authority to allocate such funds. 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.
Basically, the citizen initiative to impose the tax made promises about how the tax funds would be spent, and who would have control of the funding, decisions such as how much would be spent on bike paths, but decisions that were by law given to the county commission, not decisions that could be put to the voters. A trial judge found that these promises were unconstitutional, but held that even so, the tax could survive, just striking the promises on expenditures.
The Supreme Court, however, was unimpressed with the trial court’s severability ruling and reversed:
The purpose of the voters in levying a tax that is designed to be distributed and used in a specified manner—with elaborate provisions to implement and enforce that design—is thwarted if the tax is levied but the provisions approved by the voters governing the distribution and use of the tax are set aside. The voters supported taxing with controls on spending the proceeds of the tax. They should not be saddled with the taxing without having the benefit of the controls.
Tampa Bay Times Article on Ruling
Note. The Woodring Law Firm filed an Amicus Brief in this case on behalf of AIF supporting a challenge to the tax.