CopyCited 18 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1998 WL 233507
...m. PADOVANO, Judge. This is an appeal from a final declaratory statement by the Division of Elections on behalf of the Department of State. The Division determined that public funding of state political campaigns was suspended by a 1997 amendment to section 215.3206(2), Florida Statutes, the law governing the dissolution of state trust funds....
...managed by the state. Subject to exceptions not applicable here, Article III, section 19(f)(2) of the Florida Constitution provides that all trust funds must be terminated within four years from November 4, 1992, the effective date of the amendment. Section 215.3206 was enacted in 1993 to implement this constitutional directive. The Election Campaign Financing Trust Fund terminated along with other trust funds on November 4, 1996, according to Article III, section 19(f)(2), of the Florida Constitution and section 215.3206, Florida Statutes....
...utes, contains its own authorization for the financing of election campaigns through the state's general revenue fund. We affirmed this order in Mortham v. Milligan,
704 So.2d 152 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997). During the 1997 Session, the Legislature amended section
215.3206(2) by adding the following sentence: "No appropriation or budget amendment shall be construed to authorize any encumbrance of funds from a trust fund after the date on which the trust fund terminated or is judicially determined to be...
...Because the amendment was not at issue in that action, it was not discussed in our opinion on appeal. The petition for declaratory statement in the present case was filed by Commissioner of Education Frank T. Brogan who sought to determine whether the new language in section 215.3206(2), Florida Statutes, precludes certification of candidates for public campaign *154 financing....
...Governor Chiles and Comptroller Milligan intervened and argued that the issue was not subject to resolution by a declaratory statement because the declaration could be applied to any candidate running for a statewide office. On the merits of the controversy, the Governor and Comptroller maintained that the 1997 amendment to section 215.3206(2) had no effect on the availability of public campaign financing....
...On September 23, 1997, the Division of Elections issued a final declaratory statement on Commissioner Brogan's petition. The Division reasoned that it was not bound by the circuit court's ruling in Secretary Mortham's declaratory judgment suit because the subsequent amendment to section 215.3206, Florida Statutes, requires a different result....
...Department of Professional Regulation, Board of Medicine,
625 So.2d 918 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993). However, the courts are not required to defer to an agency's interpretation of a statute if the statute is unrelated to the functions of the agency. See Mortham v. Milligan. Here, the exception applies. Section
215.3206(2) regulates the dissolution of state trust funds for all agencies of the state government; it does not deal with the subject of elections, campaign financing, or any other issue within the jurisdiction of the Division of Elections. The Division is in no better position than the court to interpret such a statute, and so the court need not defer to the Division's interpretation. We disagree with the Division's conclusion that section
215.3206(2), Florida Statutes (1997), effectively suspends public campaign financing....
...In our view, this statute merely prohibits the appropriation of money from a trust fund that has been terminated by operation of law. Because the funds necessary to implement the Public Campaign Finance Law can be appropriated from the general revenue fund, the 1997 amendment to section 215.3206(2) has no effect on Commissioner Brogan's entitlement to public campaign financing....
...We held that the provisions of the law creating the trust fund were severable from the provisions establishing entitlement to public financial support. Applying the rule in Smith, we held that the Campaign Finance Law can be funded by appropriations from general revenue. Nothing in the 1997 amendment to section 215.3206(2) compels a different result....
...inated or is judicially determined to be invalid." Surely the legislature did not intend to eviscerate the entire Florida Election Campaign Financing Act with this cryptic statement in the law regulating trust funds. We interpret the new language in section 215.3206(2) in the most direct sense to mean only that money left over in terminated trust funds cannot be earmarked for a special purpose....
...As counsel for Comptroller Milligan explained during the oral argument, the 1997 amendment is designed to protect the remnants of those trust funds that are not yet completely dissolved. The Division could not prevail even if we were to agree that section 215.3206, Florida Statutes (1997), conflicts with Chapter 106....
...Rooks,
361 So.2d 140 (Fla.1978); Barnett Bank of South Florida v. Department of Revenue,
571 So.2d 527 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990). In the absence of an irreconcilable conflict between the statutes, we would be compelled to give meaning to both and to hold that section
215.3206(2) did not repeal the Florida Election Campaign Financing Law by implication....
...ion years but not in others. For these reasons, we conclude that the Division properly addressed the merits of the issue raised in Commissioner Brogan's petition for declaratory statement. On the merits, we hold that the Division's interpretation of section 215.3206(2) Florida Statutes (1997), is clearly erroneous....
CopyCited 2 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1997 WL 765659
...BARFIELD, Chief Judge. Appellants seek review of a circuit court order in which the trial judge concluded that termination of the Election Campaign Financing Trust Fund (Trust Fund) pursuant to article III, section 19(f) of the Florida Constitution and sections
215.3206 and
215.3208, Florida Statutes (1995), did not relieve the Secretary of State (Secretary) of the duty to: 1) certify candidates' eligibility for public campaign financing; 2) determine the amount of moneys the eligible candidates are to rece...
...ct always to the provisions of chapter 216 relating to the appropriation of funds and to the applicable laws relating to the deposit or expenditure of moneys in the State Treasury. In response to the constitutional amendment, the legislature enacted section 215.3206, which provides: (1) Prior to the regular session of the Legislature immediately preceding the date on which any executive or judicial branch trust fund is scheduled to be terminated, pursuant to the provisions of s....
...s designated for deposit into the Trust hinged on the meaning of the provision that "[a]ll cash balances and income of any trust funds abolished under this subsection shall be deposited into the general revenue fund." Art. III, § 19(f)(2). See also § 215.3206(2), Fla....
...The trial judge also correctly found that she was under no obligation to defer to the advisory opinion because it was not limited to the construction of statutes within the purview of the Division, but instead also construed article III, section 19(f) of the Florida Constitution and sections
215.32,
215.3206(2), and
215.3208(4)(a), Florida Statutes....
...We reject appellants' argument that the trial judge ignored the clear intent behind article III, section 19(f) of the constitution, *158 and its effect on the act. The trial judge correctly gave effect to the Commission's expressed purpose of the constitutional amendment and to section 215.3206, Florida Statutes....
...a trust fund was established be eliminated. Rather, it is the Commission's intent to provide for a more transparent budget by simply moving the funds from `trust funds' into the General Revenue Fund, where the funds can be more easily monitored." In section 215.3206(1), the legislature provided that each recommendation regarding whether a trust fund should be allowed to terminate or should be re-created shall be based on a "review of the purpose and use of the trust fund and a determination of w...
...n made by law. [4] We again note that the legislature, when faced with this issue during the 1996 session declined to re-create the Trust Fund but also declined to repeal the entire public campaign financing act. [5] Art. III, § 19(f), Fla. Const.; § 215.3206, Fla....
