Transportation Surtax Referendum Ordered Off Nov. 8 Ballot

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — A state judge has ordered Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer to remove the referendum asking voters to approve a transportation surtax from the general election ballot.

Latimer said he was told by Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe Thursday night to remove the ballot question.

Latimer has posted a notice on the supervisor of elections website, in voting booths and in outgoing vote-by-mail ballots informing voters that votes cast for and against this measure will not be counted.

To date, 159,846 voters have cast their general election ballots in Hillsborough County including 125,387 vote-by-mail ballots and 34,459 early-voting ballots, a 17.28 percent turnout of the county's 924,891 registered voters.

Democrats are leading in the number of ballots cast as of Friday afternoon with a turnout of 67,124 Democrats versus 60,822 Republicans and 31,900 voters who are members of minor parties or have no party affiliation.

The controversial transportation surtax referendum has been mired in a legal battle since it was passed by voters in November 2018.

Shortly after the 1 percent sales tax referendum was approved by 57 percent of the voters, Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White filed a lawsuit, arguing that the tax violates state law. He contends that the grassroots All for Transportation group that obtained the necessary signatures to place the measure on the 2018 ballot misled voters about what transportation projects would be funded with the tax money.

He said the referendum was presented to voters as a measure to repair potholes in neighborhood roads when, in fact, All for Transportation listed specific projects in the ballot language that would be funded with the tax money, few of which benefited White's district of eastern Hillsborough County.

White maintained that it violates state law for a special-interest group to dictate which transportation projects will be funded with tax money.

In February 2021, the Florida Supreme Court agreed with White and struck down the surtax. And in July, a judge ordered the county, the cities of Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace, and the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority to turn over the more than $500 million in surtax money collected so far to the Florida Legislature to determine what to do with the money.

Arguing that the county still needed sidewalks, street lighting, intersection updates and more public transportation, the majority of county commissioners voted in April to place the surtax referendum back on the 2022 ballot for another vote.

But with a month to go before the Nov. 8 general election, Moe ruled on Oct. 10 that the language in the referendum on the general election ballot "misleads the public." She ordered the referendum to be removed from the ballot, which had already been sent out to more than 360,000 voters requesting vote-by-mail ballots.

The referendum now stricken from the ballot asked:

“Should transportation improvements be funded throughout Hillsborough County, including Tampa, Plant City, Temple Terrace, Brandon, Riverview, Carrollwood and Town ‘n’ Country, including projects that:

• Build and widen roads.
• Fix roads and bridges.
• Expand public transit options.
• Fix potholes.
• Enhance bus services.
• Improve intersections.
• Make walking and biking safer.

Among those speaking out in favor of the referendum was Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, who said the surtax would pay for safety improvements to keep students while walking or biking to school and to prevent the death of drivers and pedestrians on Hillsborough County roads.

“This investment in fixing our transportation infrastructure will help make everyone safer,” Chronister said. “It will pay for more sidewalks and crosswalks for our children to keep them out of harms way, additional bike lanes for cyclists to ensure safer rides, improved maintenance and expanded lanes on existing roads to help relieve traffic congestion. Supporting an initiative that reduces traffic injuries and fatalities while allowing for faster response times for first responders is smart. While it’s never a good time to raise taxes, the cost of doing nothing is staggering.”

The tax also received the endorsement of Tim Pearson, president of Hillsborough County Firefighters Local 2294.

“For at least the past 15 years, Hillsborough County’s infrastructure spending has not been able to keep pace with our growth,” said Pearson. "As first responders, we fight through traffic every day trying to get to someone’s emergency and each year it gets harder as more cars are on the roads. Firefighters and paramedics need infrastructure that allow us to arrive quickly to any fire, heart attack, stroke or traumatic injury anywhere in the county. We must fund infrastructure that meets the everyday needs of the community while planning for future growth."

All for Transportation co-chairman Tyler Hudson said the county is experiencing unprecedented growth with 700,000 people expected to move to Hillsborough County in the next 30 years.

He said Hillsborough County already has a $13 billion backlog of road, safety and transit needs, and those needs are growing by $1 billion each year.

According to Hudson, traffic fatalities in Hillsborough County have risen nearly 40 percent since 2014. Estimates show the All for Transportation plan would save more than 1,100 lives, avoid more than 55,000 injuries and prevent more than 140,000 car crashes, while also reducing traffic congestion, he said.

See related stories:

• Florida Supreme Court Strikes Down All For Transportation Tax
• Supreme Court Appeal, Legislative Challenge: Road Tax In Jeopardy
• Judge Upholds Road Tax; Residents To Speak At Commission Meeting
• Commissioner Files Suit Over Voter-Approved Transportation Tax
• Despite Lawsuit, Commission Moves Forward With Transportation Tax

The Hillsborough County Commission appealed the court order to remove the referendum from the ballot. However, Thursday night's order by Moe to strike the referendum has most likely doomed the referendum for the general election.

Moe said one reason for her decision is the county has yet to come up with a plan to pay back the $500 million from the 2018 referendum to voters.

"There is no process by which taxpayers can get their money back from the wrongfully assessed 2018 surtax," she said.

She told the commission to return the money first, then plan on putting the referendum on the ballot in 2024.

“If the county commission deems it necessary to make transportation improvements between now and the 2024 election, it has a $17 billion budget," Moe said.